Gravitational waves – from theory to detection to astrophysics

ABSTRACT:

Gravitational waves bring us rich insights into the astrophysics of black holes and neutron stars. Detecting and interpreting these signals has been the culmination of decades of work on precision interferometry, mathematical general relativity, numerical relativity, signal modelling, and data processing. I will focus on numerical relativity and waveform modelling, with a summary of the field’s history, the most recent advances, and how and what they have taught us about the universe – and what is still to come. Finally, I will discuss one of the latest results, the first measurement of strong-field general-relativistic precession.