CRA Seminar - Prof. Lee Samuel Finn

Abstract: 

At this writing, LIGO & Virgo have together released information on observations of five coalescing binary black hole systems, one binary system involving at least neutron star, and one "sub-threshold" event likely also from a black hole binary system. Taken apart, several of these events are of great individual interest; taken together, the collection of events is evidence for discerning the mechanisms governing the formation and evolution of compact object binary systems. 

Connecting theoretical models of compact object binary population synthesis with gravitational wave observations is more fraught with uncertainty than it might - at first glance - seem. Gravitational wave detection is more than a new observational tool capable of providing a fresh perspective on astronomical phenomena that can be studied by other means. In the case of black hole binary coalescence they provide they only observational perspective on black hole binary synthesis and evolution, which is already several degrees removed from existing observational study or theoretical understanding.

In cases like this, theoretical prejudice runs an especially strong risk of clouding the rightful interpretation of the plain observations. Phenomenology - the empirical modeling of observations, consistent with broad physical principles but not tied to any specific theory - thus becomes a crucial intermediary between observation and theory, insuring that it is the former that informs the latter. 

Here we describe work in progress toward a phenomenological model of compact binary coalescence that can act as an interface between complex theoretical models of compact binary population synthesis and the growing body of observations of coalescing stellar-mass neutron star and black hole systems.