Black Holes and Gravitational Radiation

• Theory: ripples in spacetime
• Indirect evidence: Hulse & Taylor's award-winning binary pulsar
• Direct detection: gravity-wave observatories
  • Advanced LIGO: detectors in Hanford and Livingston
  • VIRGO: detector near Pisa, Italy
  • the future: LIGO India, KAGRA, Japan, LISA
• Welcome to the era of gravity wave astronomy!
  • merging black holes scientific summary paper: Abbott et al 2016
  • merging neutron stars
  • astrophysics: sky localization, observed stellar graveyard masses
  • Nobel Prize 2017: Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, Kip Thorne
• LIGO/Virgo catalog from Nov 2021, masses plotted, orbits visualized

Binary Stars and Stellar Explosions

Binary Star Evolution

Type Ia Supernovae: Explosion Physics

• white dwarf accretion
• nova outbursts - leadup to supernoave?
• thermonuclear explosion
• nucleosynthesis: iron peak
• models U Chicago 3-D simulation
• population studies: everbody makes a Type Ia!

Type Ia Supernova: Open Questions

Stellar Nucleosynthesis Revisited

• roles of stars at different masses
• summary: origins of the periodic table

Gamma-Ray Bursts

GRB History

• discovery: Vela satellites
• going public: Klebesadel+ 1973
• BATSE revolution