Gravitational waves (GW) are predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity and are caused by large, time varying distortions in space-time, for instance from orbiting or colliding compact objects. The effects of GWs have been observed in the orbits of binary pulsars and double white dwarfs and are thought to be the driving force for evolution of supermassive black hole binary mergers and several interacting binaries.
Existing and new techniques will open a new field of astrophysics in the coming years. This course gives an overview of the predictions of general relativity, the expected GW sourcese, the analysis needed to find them and then a series of lectures about current and future GW detectors or detection techniques.
The lecures will take place on Fiday, 11-13 and will be broadcasted via a videolink, so that students can follow the course from their own university. There will be exercises provided with the lectures, but there are no scheduled exercise classes. A TA will be available to help students with the exercises.
The lectures will be streamed from this link
Questions from other institutes can be asked via the chat alongside the youtube channel.
If you want to participate, please send an email to secr@astro.ru.nl with IAC in the subject line
6 EC
Lectures Friday, 11:00-13:00
Feb 12 GW signals from different types of sources, Gijs Nelemans slides
Feb 19 Recap General Relativity and Gravitational Waves, Samaya Nissanke slides
Feb 26 GW data analysis, Samaya Nissanke slides slides Data Analysis
Mar 4 eLISA mission overview and LISA Pathfinder, Gijs Nelemans
Mar 11 eLISA mission: SMBHs now and in GW 1, Elena Rossi
Mar 18 eLISA mission: SMBHs now and in GW 2, Elena Rossi
April 15 eLISA mission: WD binaries, theory, Gijs Nelemans
April 22 eLISA mission: WD binaries observations, Paul Groot
April 29 LIGO/Virgo detectors, Gijs Nelemans
May 13 LIGO/Virgo sources, Gijs Nelemans
May 20 Double NS/BH formation, Gijs Nelemans
May 27 EM counterparts, Peter Jonker
June 3 Future ground-based detectors and their science, Paul Groot
June 10 Pulsar Timing method, Jason Hessels/Gemma Janssen
June 17 Pulsar Timing results, Jason Hessls/Gemma Janssen