Physics Club: Matthew Evans, MIT, “Gravitational Waves: Sources and Next-Gen Observatories”

Event time: 
Monday, February 7, 2022 - 4:10pm to 5:10pm
Location: 
Online () See map
Event description: 

In 2016 the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves; minute distortions in space-time caused by cataclysmic events far away in the universe. In 2017, the collision of two neutron stars was detected by both of the LIGO detectors and the Virgo detector in Italy, triggering a successful follow-up campaign by ground and space-based electromagnetic telescopes. I will talk about the sources of the signals we detected, the physics behind the detectors, and prospects for building a next-gen gravitational-wave observatory known as Cosmic Explorer.
Host: Laura Newburgh
The Colloquium series of the Yale Physics Department is called the Physics Club. The name dates to the late 1890s, the era of J Willard Gibbs, who influenced the intellectual life at Yale through a number of “graduate clubs”. He was one of the founders of the Mathematics Club which originated in 1877; he served as its executive officer for ten years. The Physics Club first met on the evening of Oct. 31, 1899, with 13 in attendance. Ever since, Physics Club has met regularly through each academic year, though in a break with tradition, we do no meet on the evening of Halloween. (Reference: Suha Gürsey, The History of Physics at Yale 1701-1970 (c) 2000.)
Physics Club is a weekly colloquium of general interest to the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, Astronomy, and Mathematics. The series is aimed at graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, research staff and faculty. For more information, or to request a Zoom link to attend, please send an E-mail with your name and institutional affiliation to Taylor Dunnigan, Departmental Events Coordinator.