Astro Seminar Series - VIA ZOOM

Miguel Zumalacarregui works on different angles to understand the dark universe, testing models of gravity, dark energy, dark matter and generally exploring the potential of cosmological and gravitational wave observations to test fundamental physics. Since 2020, Miguel is a Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics. Previously, he was a Marie Sklodowska Curie Global Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and the Institut de Physique Theorique in Saclay, a Nordita Fellow and a Postdoc at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Heidelberg. He obtained his PhD at the Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Autonomous University of Madrid. 

Talk Title and Abstract:

Tests of gravity and dark energy with the propagation of gravitational waves

Observation of gravitational waves (GWs) at cosmological distances is providing new opportunities to test fundamental physics. I will discuss how different theories of gravity and dark energy may affect the GW propagation across the universe. First, I will review the propagation of GWs on an ideal homogeneous and isotropic cosmology and the constraints they produce with current data. Next, I will present a framework to study GW propagation in general space-times and it’s application to gravitational lensing in theories beyond Einstein’s gravity. Novel effects arise, including birefringence between GW polarizations, an phenomenon that can be constrained at high precision from the wealth of binary black hole mergers.

Would you like to join this Zoom seminar?  Please email Donna Hayes.