Title: Confronting binary black hole coalescence with gravitational wave observations

Speaker: Prof. Badri Krishnan, MPI Gravitational Physics Hannover

Abstract: The LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories have found a number of binary black hole mergers. The observed gravitational wave signal offers an interesting way to test the predictions of general relativity which is different and complementary to, say, radio observations of double pulsar systems. Unlike the radio observations which test the inspiral regime, the gravitational wave observations could allow us to test the merger phase where dynamical and highly non-linear effects are important. In this talk I will discuss the possibility and future prospects of such tests.

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Badri Krishnan works at the Albert Einstein Institute in Hannover, Germany, where he leads the group on compact binary coalescences. The aim of his group is to find and interpret gravitational wave events seen by the LIGO and Virgo detectors, and to use them to test general relativity and understand their impact in astrophysics and cosmology. Badri also works on other kinds of gravitational wave searches, especially for long lived quasi-periodic signals emitted by rapidly rotating neutron stars, and on various fundamental aspects of black hole physics.