Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
Everything you wanted to know about extreme astrophysics but were afraid to ask.
The grand challenges of contemporary fundamental physics—dark matter, dark energy, vacuum energy, inflation and early universe cosmology, singularities and the hierarchy problem—all involve gravity as a key component.The long-held promise of gravitational-wave astronomy as a new window onto
the universe has finally materialized with the dramatic discoveries of the LIGO-Virgo
collaboration in the past few years. We have taken but the first steps along a new,
exciting avenue of exploration that has now opened before us.
In the last two years, strong-field gravity astrophysics research has been undergoing
a momentous transformation thanks to the recent discoveries of five binary black hole
(BBH) mergers that were observed in gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO and
Virgo detectors. This was compounded last year by the multi-messenger discovery of a
neutron star binary (NSB) merger measured in both GWs and detected in every part
of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, allowing us to place compact object mergers in
their full astrophysical context. These measurements have opened up an entirely new
window onto the Universe, and given rise to a new rapidly growing and observationally-
driven field of GW astrophysics.
Black hole genesis and Archaeology
Dynamical Formation of Stellar-mass Binary Black Holes
Primordial Black Holes and Dark Matter
Primordial black holes might have been produced from early universe phase transitions, topological defects such as cosmic strings & domain walls, condensate fragmentation, bubble nucleation and large amplitude small scale fluctuations produced during inflation. What if dark matter consists of primordial black holes?
Supermassive black hole binaries
The Gravitational-Wave Background
GW 170817. Adding to the excitement was the detection of gamma-ray emission only
two seconds after the merger event, by the Fermi satellite. The sensational discovery
of a GW signal with a coincident EM emission led to one of the most comprehensive
observational campaigns worldwide. A few hours after the GW detection, the LIGO
and Virgo detectors managed to pinpoint the position of the GW event
Roughly 11 hours after the GW event, an optical counterpart was detected across
the spectrum with detections in the ultraviolet, optical, infrared
and later on also in the X-ray and in the radio.
X-ray and gamma-ray binaries
Cosmology with gravitational waves
etc.