NBIA Colloquium: Harald Pfeiffer

Speaker: Harald Pfeiffer

Title: Binary black hole coalescence: From numerical relativity to gravitational waves

Abstract: Several times per hour, a pair of black holes coalesces somewhere in the observable Universe. Direct supercomputer calculations of binary black holes elucidate the dynamics of warped space-time and underpin gravitational wave observations of these systems. This talk introduces the techniques of such simulations and their application to gravitational wave astronomy. We summarize current observational results and future challenges.