Searching for New Particles with Black Hole Superradiance

COVID-19 information for PI Residents and Visitors

Conference Date: 
Wednesday, May 9, 2018 (All day) to Friday, May 11, 2018 (All day)
Scientific Areas: 
Particle Physics
Strong Gravity

 

Black hole superradiance is a fascinating process in general relativity and a unique window on ultralight particles beyond the standard model. Bosons -- such as axions and dark photons -- with Compton wavelengths comparable to size of astrophysical black holes grow exponentially to form large clouds, spinning down the black hole in the process, and produce monochromatic, continuous gravitational wave radiation. In the era of gravitational wave astronomy and increasingly sensitive observations of astrophysical black holes and their properties, superradiance of new light particles is a promising avenue to search for new physics in regimes inaccessible to terrestrial experiments. This workshop will bring together theorists, data analysts, and observers in particle physics, gravitational wave astronomy, strong gravity, and high energy astrophysics to explore the signatures of black hole superradiance and to study the current and future possibilities of searching for new particles with black holes.

  • Richard Brito, Albert Einstein Institute
  • Avery Broderick, Perimeter Institute & University of Waterloo
  • Savas Dimopoulos, Stanford University
  • Sam Dolan, University of Sheffield
  • Sergei Dubovsky, New York University
  • Carl-Johan Haster, CITA
  • Frans Pretorius, Princeton University
  • Keith Riles, University of Michigan
  • James Steiner, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
  • Salvatore Vitale, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
  • Sylvia Zhu, Albert Einstein Institute
  • Michalis Agathos, University of Cambridge
  • Asimina Arvanitaki, Perimeter Institute
  • James Bardeen, University of Washington
  • Masha Baryakhtar, Perimeter Institute
  • Pablo Bosch, Perimeter Institute
  • Richard Brito, Albert Einstein Institute
  • Avery Broderick, Perimeter Institute & University of Waterloo
  • Horng Sheng Chia, University of Amsterdam
  • Vladimir Dergachev, Albert Einstein Institute
  • Savas Dimopoulos, Stanford University
  • Sam Dolan, University of Sheffield
  • Sergei Dubovsky, New York University
  • William East, Perimeter Institute
  • Marios Galanis, Stanford University
  • Javier Garcia, California Institute of Technology
  • Carl-Johan Haster, CITA
  • Junwu Huang, Perimeter Institute
  • Maximilian Isi, California Institute of Technology
  • Badri Krishnan, Albert Einstein Institute
  • David Kubzinak, Perimeter Institute
  • Robert Lasenby, Perimeter Institute
  • Katarina Martinovic, Perimeter Institute
  • Frans Pretorius, Princeton University
  • Jing Ren, University of Toronto
  • Keith Riles, University of Michigan
  • Olivier Simon, Stanford University
  • James Steiner, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
  • Mae Hwee Teo, Stanford University
  • Salvatore Vitale, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
  • Sylvia Zhu, Albert Einstein Institute
  • Aaron Zimmerman, CITA

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Time

Event

Location

10:00 – 10:30am

Registration

Reception

10:30 – 11:30am

Savas Dimopoulos, Stanford University
Searching for Light Bosons with Black Hole Superradiance

Bob Room

11:30 – 12:30pm

Sam Dolan, University of Sheffield
Superradiant Instabilities and Rotating
Black Holes

Bob Room

12:30 – 2:00pm

Lunch

Bistro – 2nd Floor

2:00 – 3:00pm

Colloquium
Cory Doctorow, Craphound
The War on General Purpose Computers
is the War on Science

Time Room

3:00 – 3:30pm

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

3:30 – 4:30pm

Avery Broderick, Perimeter Institute
Probing Supermassive Black Hole Spacetimes with the Event Horizon Telescope

Bob Room

4:30 – 5:30pm

James Steiner, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
Measuring Stellar-Mass Black Hole
Spins via X-ray Spectroscopy

Bob Room

 

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Time

Event

Location

10:00 – 11:00am

Frans Pretorius, Princeton University
Superradiance Beyond the Linear Regime

Bob Room

11:00 – 11:30am

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

11:30 – 12:30pm

Salvatore Vitale, Massachussetts Institute of Technology
Characterization of Compact Objects with Present and Future Ground-Based Gravitational Wave Detectors

Bob Room

12:30 – 2:30pm

Lunch

Bistro – 2nd Floor

2:30 – 3:30pm

Keith Riles, University of Michigan
LIGO and Virgo Continuous Wave Searches - Overview and all-sky searches

Bob Room

3:30 – 4:00pm

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

4:00 – 5:00pm

Sylvia Zhu, Albert Einstein Institute
Directed and Targeted Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves

Bob Room

6:00pm Onwards

Banquet

Bistro 2nd Floor

 

Friday, May 11, 2018

Time

Event

Location

10:00 – 11:00am

Carl-Johan Haster, CITA
Where Do Black Hole Binaries Come From, and Can We Actually Know That?

Bob Room

11:00 – 11:30am

Coffee Break

Bistro – 1st Floor

11:30 – 12:30pm

Richard Brito, Albert Einstein Institute
Gravitational wave searches for ultralight bosons

Bob Room

12:30 – 2:30pm

Lunch

Bistro – 2nd Floor

2:30 – 3:30pm

Sergei Dubovsky, New York University
Conclusions and Outlook

Bob Room

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday May 11, 2018
Speaker(s): 

Ultralight bosons can induce superradiant instabilities in spinning black holes, tapping their rotational energy to trigger the growth of a bosonic condensate.

Scientific Areas: 
 

 

Thursday May 10, 2018
Speaker(s): 

Traditionally, searches for continuous gravitational waves have looked for neutron stars with varying mass or current quadrupoles. If information is known about the source — such as a sky position or even a full ephemeris — this information can be used to run a more sensitive search around the known parameters of that source. These directed and targeted searches have set new and ever-improving constraints on the properties of individual neutron stars.

Scientific Areas: 
 

 

Thursday May 10, 2018
Speaker(s): 

The Continuous Waves (CW) Search Group of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration carries out a diverse suite of searches for a diverse set of possible CW sources. Assumptions underlying these searches will be discussed, along with strategies used so far to keep our eyes wide open while also giving due attention to the most promising sources. One important assumption to date has been that fast-spinning, non-axisymmetric neutron stars are the most promising class of CW sources.

Scientific Areas: 

Pages

Scientific Organizers:

  • Asimina Arvanitaki, Perimeter Institute
  • Masha Baryakhtar, Perimeter Institute
  • William East, Perimeter Institute
  • Robert Lasenby, Perimeter Institute