Physical Society Colloquium

Locating sources of gravitational waves and their electromagnetic counterparts

Sterl Phinney

Caltech

Gravitational wave sources identified by LIGO and LISA sources can be localised by gravitational waves alone. Tidal disruption and collisons of neutron stars (LIGO), binary white dwarfs (LISA), stellar mass compact objects captured by massive black holes in galactic nuclei, and binary supermassive black holes (LISA) can all be localised only to degrees. Yet it will still be possible to identify electromagnetic counterparts of a subset of these, with profound benefits to both gravitational wave and electromagnetic astrophysics.