Gravitational wave (GW) observatories have begun to unravel some of our Universe’s greatest astrophysical mysteries from the dissection of neutron stars to the origins of black hole populations. In addition to exploring the contents of spacetime, GW observations have also provided a means to search for secondary interactions between GW’s and the various astrophysical objects they encounter on their way to us. A promising avenue for exploring both is the interaction between GW “tails” — the part of the GW that propagates on the interior of the light cone — and massive objects near their path to us. Such tails are predicted to produce faithful echoes of the GW that arrive shortly after their primary signal counterpart reaches the observatory. In this presentation, we will discuss how to characterize and search for this new gravitational phenomenon and how its successful detection could be used to improve our understanding of relativistic interactions as well as the astrophysical objects that participate in them.

Join us on Friday, January 27, from 12 - 1 p.m. in Hayes 211/213 to hear this exciting presentation. Lunch will be available in Hayes 216 from 11:45 to 12. We hope to see you there!