prof. dr hab. Andrzej Królak, IMP

Gravitational wave astronomy - a new window on the Universe

I shall present first detections of gravitational wave signals from merging compact binary systems of black holes and neutron stars made by LIGO and Virgo detectors. I shall focus on the recent first detection of the gravitational wave signal from coalescence of two neutron stars and accompanying observations of gamma ray bursts and kilonova. I shall briefly describe the phenomenon of gravitational radiation in general theory of relativity. I shall explain basic principles of the laser interferometric gravitational wave detector. I shall present data analysis methods used in the detection of gravitational wave signals in the noise of the detectors. I shall present consequencies of the detections for fundamental physics and astronomy. I shall describe contribution of Polish scientists into this discovery.