Course on Black holes and Gravitational Waves
If you are interested please fill black hole course
Lecturers: Jose Maria Ezquiaga, Maarten van de Meent
Placement: Block 4
Credits: 7.5 ECTS
Evaluation: exercises + research project
Course description:
Black holes are among the most unique objects in the Universe from a theoretical and observational perspective. Their study promises to deepen our understanding about gravity, its connection with other fundamental forces and its role in the formation and evolution of the cosmos. Black holes are nowadays also a central piece of the astronomical program from the imaging of the Event Horizon Telescope to the gravitational waves detected by LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA.
In this course we will explore the fundamentals of black hole theory and their observational evidence. We will then focus on gravitational wave radiation from the coalescence of compact binaries. The goal of the course is to set the stage for students to understand the basis and open questions of black hole theory and gravitational wave observations.
This course is designed for master and graduate students. Previous knowledge of General Relativity, for example attending the General Relativity and Cosmology course in Block 3, is a prerequisite.
Along the course students will follow in person lectures, read additional materials, work on exercise assignments and develop a final project.
Syllabus:
What is a black hole?
Schwarzschild metric
Penrose diagrams
What is a black hole?
Kerr metric
Geodesics around Kerr
Black hole shadows
Black hole perturbations
Teukolsky equation
Ringing a black hole and other fun stuff
Scattering waves with Kerr
Superradiance
Quasi normal modes
Black holes in our universe: how they form, how we find them
Gravitational collapse
White dwarfs, neutron stars and Chandrasekhar Limit
Evidence for BHs: astrometry, lensing, imaging
When black holes meet each other
Gravitational wave generation: quadrupole formula
Inspiral of compact binaries
Full waveforms: inspiral, merger, ringdown
Gravitational waves across the cosmos
Wave propagation in general relativity
Cosmological propagation
Lensing by cosmological inhomogeneities
The new era of gravitational wave astronomy
Current GW observatories
Data analysis: match-filtering and Bayesian statistics
Future frontiers