Event FinderPhysics/Astronomy Colloquium: Ish Gupta
- Starts
- Ends
- Format
- In person
- Location
- Lewis Hall, 101, University, MS, United States
About This Event
Speaker: Ish Gupta, University of California, Berkeley Title: Neutron star–black hole mergers as precision probes of the Universe Abstract: What can we learn about the Universe when a neutron star collides with a black hole? Recent gravitational-wave observations have opened a new window into these remarkable cosmic events, offering opportunities to explore the lives of massive stars, the properties of compact objects, and the expansion of the Universe itself. The large difference in mass between neutron stars and black holes produces distinctive features in their gravitational-wave signals, allowing us to measure their properties and distances with remarkable precision. In some cases, these mergers may also produce electromagnetic radiation, opening exciting possibilities for multi-messenger astronomy. In this talk, I will review what we have learned from neutron star–black hole mergers so far and discuss how they can reveal the origins of compact binaries, enable measurements of small neutron star spins, and serve as cosmic distance rulers. I will also explore how future observatories, such as Cosmic Explorer and the Einstein Telescope, could use populations of these mergers to measure the expansion of the Universe with sub-percent precision. Refreshments at 3:45pm in Lewis 104