Dr. Meng-Xiang Lin (University of Pennsylvania)

Testing fundamental physics with gravitational wave propagations

The detection of gravitational waves from the LIGO/Virgo collaboration provides an excellent probe for the fundamental physics of gravity with interferometer detectors, and the recent pulsar timing arrays (PTA) detections of stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) open a new window due to their different frequency sensitivity (nHz band).

We explore the possibility of testing gravity theory using both interferometers and PTA detectors by studying the impacts of modified propagation of gravitational waves. On the other hand, astrometry also holds the potential to detect SGWB by precisely measuring the stellar positions. We explore the feasibility of using astrometry for the identification of parity-violating signals which is hard in PTA measurements. This is achieved by defining and quantifying a non-vanishing EB correlation function within astrometric correlation functions, and investigating how one might estimate the detectability of such signals. [link]

Place: Shu Qi meeting room

Time: Tuesday, January 2, 2024 - 1:30PM to Tuesday, January 2, 2024 - 2:30PM