Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

The detections of gravitational waves from compact binary mergers and the followup observations of electromagnetic emissions together provide a powerful and independent tool to explore the Universe. With successive upgrades to the LIGO and Virgo sensitivities, and hence a growing number of detections, we are prepared to address a number of major questions in astrophysics. In this talk, I will discuss two topics in which I expect critical progress will be made in the next few years: (i) How do we make precise and accurate Hubble constant measurements with gravitational-wave events? (ii) What can we learn about neutron star nuclear physics from gravitational-wave observations? I will close with my outlook on the immense scientific opportunities that the next-generation gravitational-wave detectors will provide.