You’re invited to a talk by Joseph Simon from Caltech on Wednesday, April 25 12-1pm in DH 256! Coffee, tea, and cookies will be provided.
“Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) are galactic-scale low-frequency (nHz – μHz) gravitational wave (GW) observatories, which aim to directly detect GWs from binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Binary SMBHs are predicted products of galaxy mergers, and are a crucial step in galaxy formation theories. Understanding the link between binary SMBHs and the gravitational radiation detected by PTAs is crucial to the community’s capability of making meaningful scientific statements using PTA observations. In this talk, I will explain how recent PTA upper limits on the gravitational radiation in the nanohertz frequency band are impacting our understanding of the binary SMBH population, and show what can be implied about galaxy evolution as PTAs gain more sensitivity.”