WI Seminar- Vuk Mandic

Over the past decade, gravitational wave astrophysics has evolved from its groundbreaking discovery to the routine observation of gravitational wave events. LIGO and Virgo detectors have observed 390 compact binary mergers to date, while the next-generation gravitational wave detectors, such as Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer, are expected to observe between 100,000 and 1,000,000 events annually. Among the many science targets of these detectors, one of the most awe-inspiring is the potential to detect signals from the first minute after the Big Bang. Specifically, a stochastic background of gravitational waves is anticipated to arise from various processes that occurred during this early epoch of the universe, at energy scales unattainable in laboratory settings. This gives gravitational waves a unique prospect of probing fundamental physical laws at extreme energies and of exploring the early universe’s evolution, a phase for which we have no other messengers. I will review the rich physics of the very early universe, and I will discuss the prospects of observing the signatures of this physics with the current and next generation of gravitational wave detectors. This includes assessment and removal of astrophysical foregrounds due to sources such as compact binary mergers. 

Bio: Prof. Vuk Mandic is a distinguished McKnight University Professor, School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. Please direct here for the page https://cse.umn.edu/physics/vuk-mandic for more details.