Astrophysical backgrounds of gravitational waves: an overview
PIRSA ID:
20100006
Series:
Strong Gravity
Event Type:
Seminar
Scientific Area(s):
Strong Gravity
End date:
Speaker(s):
- Giulia Cusin, University of Geneva (UNIGE) - Department of Theoretical Physics
The astrophysical background of gravitational waves (AGWB) is composed by the incoherent superposition of gravitational wave signals emitted by resolved and unresolved astrophysical sources from the onset of stellar activity until today. In this talk, I will present a theoretical framework to characterize the AGWB in terms of energy density and polarization and I will show predictions for the angular power spectra of the background anisotropy and for its cross-correlations with electromagnetic observables, in the frequency bands accessible by LIGO/Virgo and LISA. I will then discuss the astrophysical content of these observables, give an overview of the state of the art of observations, and highlight future observational challenges.