Chennai Mathematical Institute

Seminars




3:30 pm, Seminar Hall
CMI Silver Jubilee Colloquium
LIGO-India: Towards Multi-messenger Astronomy

Bala R Iyer
ICTS-TIFR, Bangalore.
02-03-15


Abstract

The upcoming Gravitational Wave (GW) detectors Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo will be operational in a few years and are expected to make several detections per year. The first detections will lead to a fundamentally new observational window to the Universe with implications for astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics. The anticipated multi-messenger astronomy requires extension of the existing LIGO-Virgo network to a global network including observatories like LIGO-India to provide good sky localization for the GW sources. LIGO-India will thus play a critical role in locating and deciphering these sources. The status of LIGO-India project and the exciting research opportunities - arising from this international facility on Indian soil - in a variety of disciplines in basic science, high end technology and challenges in computations will be finally indicated.