Cosmology in the era of multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves
Marcelle Soares-Santos
University of Michigan
Motivated by the exciting prospect of a new wealth of information arising from the first observations of gravitational and electromagnetic radiation from the same astrophysical phenomena, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) has established a search and discovery program for the optical transients associated with LIGO/Virgo events (DESGW). Using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), DESGW has contributed to the discovery of the optical transient associated with the neutron star merger GW170817, and to the first cosmological measurements using gravitational wave events as standard sirens. After three successful observing campaigns, I present, in this talk, an overview of our results and their implications for the emerging field of multi-messenger cosmology with gravitational waves and optical data.
Professor Soares-Santos’ research aims to uncover the nature of the accelerated expansion of the cosmos. Her team detected the first neutron star collision ever observed, a discovery heralded as the Science breakthrough of the year 2017. She was awarded the prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship in 2019 and the Cottrell Scholar Award in 2021. Her research has been featured in major media outlets worldwide including the American PBS TV series Nova Wonders. Currently, Professor Soares-Santos is a faculty member at the University of Michigan Department of Physics. Previously, she was the Landsman Career Development Chair & Assistant Professor of Physics at Brandeis University. She was also an Associate Scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. She obtained her MSc and PhD degrees at the University of São Paulo Institute for Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences after completing her undergraduate studies in physics at the Federal University of Espírito Santo.
Link da transmissão: https://www.youtube.com/c/AstronomiaIAGUSP/live