CITA Sackler Lecture: Einstein’s Waves: New Cosmic Sounds

One century following Einstein’s prediction of spacetime disturbances and gravitational waves, the laser-enabled special detectors LIGO achieved the most accurate measurement ever made by humans across science and engineering and revealed to us the gravitational-wave signals produced by the most powerful collisions of black holes in the universe. These revolutionary  discoveries have given birth to a brand new field of astronomy, a completely new way of sensing the cosmos and exploring its darkest corners. Prof. Kalogera will review the first direct detections of gravitational waves and what they can teach us about the nature of black holes and other exotic cosmic events.

Vicky Kalogera is the E.O. Haven Professor of Physics & Astronomy at Northwestern University, and the Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). Her research centers on black holes, white dwarfs and neutron stars, where she covers a wide range of topics including their formation, their behaviour in single and  multiple systems, and collisions among such objects. She is a leading member of the LIGO team which discovered gravitational waves from colliding black holes. Among her numerous awards are the prestigious Hans A. Bethe Prize of the American Physics Society and a Special Breakthrough Prize in Physics.

Prof. Kalogera will also give a more technical CITA seminar on November 16 at 2:00pm: Gravitational-Wave Discoveries Driving the Promise of Multi-Messenger Astronomy

Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Reservations: Not required
Organized by: Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
Location: Koffler Institute, Room 108, 569 Spadina Ave., Toronto (also known as the Multi-Faith Centre)

http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/sackler-lecture-einsteins-waves-new-cosmic-sounds/
http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/events/sackler-lectures/2016-vicky-kalogera/