Speaker
Dr
Salvatore Vitale
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Description
Ground-based gravitational-wave detectors have opened new avenues to explore the universe. The detections of several binary black holes have allowed, for the first time, to access these objects without needs for photons, and to directly measure their masses and spins. The spectacular join detection of gravitational waves and light from the binary neutron star system GW170817 has shown the potential of multi-messenger astrophysics and yielded an independent measurement of the Hubble constant. In this talk, I will focus on what we can expect next, as the detectors approach their design sensitivity. I will also report on the scientific potential of the next-generation of gravitational-wave detectors, which could detect all the binary black holes in the universe.
