Dr. Zsuzsanna Márka: Uncovering Einstein's Elusive Waves

Abstract:

Gravitational waves can be emitted by the cosmic dance of a pair of compact objects such as black holes or neutron stars. Since the prediction of gravitational waves by Einstein in 1916, it took a full century for humanity to detect these elusive waves, due to their miniscule amplitude at far distance. I will talk about the technological innovations that lead to this Nobel prize winning discovery. I will also discuss the current revolution in astronomy and astrophysics enabled by the decade and half long multimessenger effort using gravitational-waves, neutrinos, and electromagnetic counterparts.

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Bio Brief:Zsuzsa Marka is an experimental physicist at Columbia University. She works on the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) project, the experiment that announced the first observation of gravitational-waves from a pair of merging black holes. Her main contribution is leading the manufacturing and testing of a key subsystem, the timing system, for the LIGO detectors, and she also leads the timing diagnostics studies for the collaboration. Beyond instrumentation, she also works with members of the Columbia Experimental Gravity group on various aspects of gravitational-wave astrophysics, including analysis of gravitational-wave data in conjunction with electromagnetic and neutrino messengers.

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Language: English