Maria Okounkova, Flatiron Institute

Events

Past Event

Maria Okounkova, Flatiron Institute

November 9, 2020
2:10 PM - 3:10 PM
Event time is displayed in your time zone.
Zoom

Binary Black Hole Mergers beyond General Relativity

At some length scale, Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) must break down and be reconciled with quantum mechanics in a quantum theory of gravity. Binary black hole mergers probe the strong field, non-linear, highly dynamical regime of gravity, and thus gravitational waves from these systems could contain beyond-GR signatures. While LIGO presently performs model-independent and parametrized tests of GR, in order to perform model-dependent tests, we must have access to numerical relativity binary black hole waveform predictions in beyond-GR theories through full inspiral, merger, and ringdown. In this talk, I will discuss our results in producing full numerical relativity waveforms in beyond-GR theories, including dynamical Chern-Simons gravity and Einstein dilaton Gauss-Bonnet gravity.