Institute for Advanced Study Astrophysics Seminar

In this talk I will describe recent progress in applying tools from collider physics to problems in classical general relativity. This program has produced state-of-the-art calculations of the conservative two-body Hamiltonian at the fourth order in Newton’s constant, G^4, as well as the G^3 radiated energy-momentum in binary black hole encounters and elliptical orbits. I will explain how these results were made possible by leveraging modern on-shell techniques, effective field theory, and semiclassical reasoning. Finally, I will comment on the prospects of (and challenges in) using these calculations to generate more accurate analytical waveform templates for gravitational wave detection.