Speaker: Leo Stein (Univ of Mississippi)

Title:
Gravitational waves from black hole mergers: The big picture and subtle details

Abstract:
Extracting science from gravitational wave observations requires theoretical modeling, both analytical and numerical. The current state of these models is sufficient for present-day detectors, but next generation detectors bring the promise and challenge of much higher signal-to-noise ratios. This demands we understand the fine details: our modeling errors must be smaller than statistical noise. I'll give an overview of modeling gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers, then go into some of the subtle details: (i) The beginnings of our numerical waveforms need to be stitched to analytical approximations; and (ii) The late portion of our numerical waveforms can be modeled as "quasinormal ringing." Getting both of these right is harder than it sounds!

Bio:

Leo Stein specializes in gravitational waves, black holes, and testing theories of gravity beyond Einstein's theory of general relativity. He received his PhD in 2012 from MIT, followed by a NASA Einstein postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell. Leo was then a senior postdoctoral researcher at Caltech before joining the faculty at the University of Mississippi in 2018.