Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

Ultra-compact objects in binaries: Looking through gravitational waves

Manjari Bagchi

IMSc

Gravitational waves are direct consequences of general relativity. The
study of binary pulsars showed the evidence of emission of gravitational
waves from those binaries. But direct detection of gravitational waves
were elusive until very recently. In September 2015, two laser
interferometers (LIGO) in the US detected the passing of gravitational
waves created by the late stage of inspiral and merger of two black holes.
The results were announced on 11th February 2016. Both of the pre-merger
black holes were more massive than the known black holes (in X-ray
binaries). The merged object was a rotating 'Kerr' black hole, leading to
the first evidence of such an object. Thus, it is a right time to revisit
our knowledge of gravitational waves; as well as of formation and
evolution of black hole binaries. This talk aims to do so in connection
with the aforementioned detection.