Illuminating a Dark World: Gravitational Wave Astrophysics with Binary Black Holes

Richard O'Shaughnessy, Rochester Institute of Technology
 

Three years ago, gravitational waves from a pair of coalescing black holes were detected, confirming Einstein's prediction and opening a new window on the universe. Since then, LIGO and Virgo's ongoing observing has identified several new binary black holes; more will be reported soon, and hundreds more per year are expected over the decade to come. In this talk, I survey the rich and rapidly-developing field of gravitational wave astronomy with binary black holes. I describe what we learn from individual gravitational wave measurements, and how these measurements are being used to draw insights into the lives and deaths of massive stars, the star formation rate and expansion history of the universe, and processes that cause black holes to form in binaries. I summarize the immediate challenges faced during the next few years, in a quest to fully exploit the abundant binary black hole population which GW observatories have unveiled.