Kavli Summer Program in Astrophysics 2017:
Astrophysics with gravitational wave detections
Copenhagen Niels Bohr Institute, July 10th-August 18th, 2017
Workshop July 10th-14th, 2017
In February of 2016, the LIGO observatory announced the first detection of gravitational waves from the merger of a pair of black holes. This has been followed by another detection and a third candidate binary black hole merger.
The 2017 program will be focussed on the scientific ramifications of these gravitational wave detections. Key questions include how gravitational wave observations can improve our understanding of binary stellar evolution and the origin of compact objects.
The program will be hosted at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and directed by Ilya Mandel (Birmingham) and Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (UC Santa Cruz/Niels Bohr Instiute). The first week of the program will be a workshop with lectures by Will Farr (Birmingham), Cole Miller (Maryland), and Deirdre Shoemaker (Georgia Tech). Subsequent weeks will allow graduate students, postdocs, and faculty to collaborate on addressing some of the key outstanding puzzles in the field of gravitational-wave astrophysics.