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SUMMARY:The formation of massive black-hole binaries: understanding the Ad
 vanced LIGO detections  - Philipp Podsiadlowski (University of Oxford)
DTSTART:20160428T150000Z
DTEND:20160428T160000Z
UID:TALK65574@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Simon Hodgkin
DESCRIPTION:The Advanced LIGO gravitational-wave detector has just reporte
 d the discovery of the first direct detection of gravitational waves confi
 rming Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity in its extreme limit. The 
 sources of these gravitational waves were merging relatively massive stell
 ar-mass black holes  that were much more massive than had been predicted b
 efore. In this talk I will summarize some of the models for the formation 
 of such massive black-hole binaries\, in particular  the model proposed by
  our group (Marchant et al. 2016)\, which involves the homogeneous  evolut
 ion of two massive stars in a very close binary. The model makes specific 
 predictions about the mass distribution and the mass ratio of such black-h
 ole mergers. It also predicts that  the most massive black-hole mergers ca
 n be detected with aLIGO throughout a large fraction of the observable Uni
 verse\, allowing us to test the theory of massive stars throughout most of
  the history of the Universe with implications for other enigmatic events 
 such as gamma-ray bursts and superluminous supernovae. 
LOCATION:Sackler Lecture Theatre\, IoA (tea at 3:30 pm)
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