An Introduction to Gravitational Waves

Speaker : Divyajyoti

Venue : Google Meet (meet.google.com/ybt-oyvs-ecv)

Date : 12th March, 2021 (Friday)

Time : 5.00 P.M.

Abstract

When two massive compact objects such as black holes inspiral towards each other and merge, they give rise to a burst of energy radiated outwards in the form of Gravitational Waves (GWs). GWs are disturbances in space-time. They were predicted by Einstein in his general theory of relativity nearly 100 years back and were first detected by the LIGO detector in 2015. These waves are extremely feeble and thus very hard to detect. Even those which are produced by the most massive and exotic objects in the universe need state-of-the-art detectors to be detected. In this talk, I will focus on the production and detection of the gravitational waves, and how they provide us with a new window to look at the universe.

About the speaker

Divyajyoti is a research scholar working on Gravitational Waves in the Department of Physics, IITM. She is guided by Dr. Chandra Kant Mishra. She completed her B.Tech. jointly from NIT Agartala and IIT Madras. She is also a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.