Thesis Dissertation Defense

The LIGO and Virgo detectors have detected 90 gravitational wave events from collisions of pairs of black holes and neutron stars. The astrophysical interpretation of these events gives insights into the source properties and relies on sophisticated modeling. In this thesis, I explore biases introduced in this interpretation by un-modeled astrophysical or terrestrial effects, and probe the validity of general relativity and nuclear effects in post-mergers of binary neutron stars. For this, I use BayesWave, a wavelet-based algorithm that is sensitive to a wide range of waveform morphologies. I introduce the analysis method, its characterization via simulation studies, and its implementation on data from the first three observing runs of LIGO and Virgo.