Bernard Schutz (Albert-Einstein Inst., Max-Planck Inst. for Gravitational Physics, Germany)

NAOC, May 5, 2010, 3:30 p.m.:

 The large gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and VIRGO are increasing their range and sensitivity step-by-step, so that we can be confident that, sometime between 2014 and 2016, they will begin making regular observations of neutron stars and black holes colliding and merging together in the near universe. Early in the next decade the much more sensitive space detector LISA may begin to survey the entire universe for black hole mergers. And sometime during this period, radio astronomers could begin to measure the tiny effects of gravitational waves on the signals they get from pulsars. This talk will focus on what we expect to learn from gravitational wave astronomy with these instruments about stars, galaxies, the universe as a whole, and about gravity itself. And it will look at possible future developments: large detectors in Asian, super-sensitive underground detectors in the US and Europe.