The NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set - Maura McLaughlin - 04/14/2021

This is a high-level research talk designed for professional astronomers. It is part of the Caltech Astronomy Colloquium Series, hour-long presentations given weekly by top scientists from around the world to the members of our department. All are welcome to watch these colloquium presentations; however, for talks specifically designed for the general public, please see our Caltech Astro Outreach channel: https://youtube.com/c/caltechastro. Timestamps and abstract are included below.

Speaker: Maura McLaughlin, West Virginia University

Title: The NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set: Knocking at the Gravitational Wave Door

Abstract: Millisecond pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars with phenomenal rotational stability. The NANOGrav collaboration monitors an array of about 80 of these cosmic clocks in order to detect perturbations due to gravitational waves at nanohertz frequencies. These gravitational waves will most likely result from an ensemble of supermassive black hole binaries. Their detection and subsequent study will offer unique insights into galaxy growth and evolution over cosmic time. I will present our most recent dataset and the results of our gravitational wave analysis, which suggests the presence of a common spectral signature in the data that could be the first hints of a gravitational wave background. I will then describe the gains in sensitivity that are expected from additional data, discoveries of millisecond pulsars, more sensitive instrumentation, and international collaboration and discuss prospects for detection in the next several years.

Видео The NANOGrav 12.5-Year Data Set - Maura McLaughlin - 04/14/2021 канала Caltech Astro Seminars