Lecture: “Gravitational Waves”

Summer Semester 2016 at Universität Heidelberg

Lecture: Monday, 14-16 pm, Philosophenweg 12, kleiner Hörsaal

NOTE: lecture on 13/06/16 will NOT take place

Syllabus

Gravitational waves are wave-like solutions of the Einstein field equations that propagate as ripples of the space-time. Their existence was predicted soon after Einstein formulated his theory of General Relativity. Only recently, in September 2015 gravitational waves were detected for the first time. This measurement proved the existence of gravitational waves and the existence of black-hole binaries which merge. The course will cover the following topics:

Introduction to General Relativity
Introduction to gravitational waves (theoretical background)
Gravitational wave sources – overview
Compact binary dynamics – inspiral and merger
GW140915 – the first detected gravitational wave event
Introduction neutron stars
Neutron-star mergers
Formation channels and rate estimates
Detector techniques
Data analysis
Multi-messenger astronomy

Slides

You can access the slides here.