organized by the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute).
March 11 – 22, 2019
The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) offers a crash course on Black Holes and gravitational wave astrophysics. This course can be attended by students studying from the 5th semester Physics or Mathematics.
The spring school will first introduce general relativity; we will then discuss black holes; the final section will be about gravitational waves, and will cover in particular the recent discoveries of merging black holes and neutrons stars which were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize of Physics.
- Introduction to General Relativity and the theory of black holes
- Gravitational waves and the LIGO/Virgo observations
The timetable is arranged to provide two blocks in the morning. In the afternoon there will be opportunities for questions and discussions.
The lectures will take place daily from 9.15 – 10.45 and 11.15 – 12.45 in the lecture hall of the main building of the Max Planck campus in Potsdam-Golm.
Address
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
Am Mühlenberg 1
14476 Potsdam-Golm
Contact
Prerequisites
A working knowledge of freshman physics (classical mechanics, electromagnetism), and mathematics (advanced calculus, linear algebra) will be assumed. Some prior exposure to differential geometry is desirable but not required.
Abstracts
Week 1: Introduction to General relativity and the theory of black holes
The first week’s lectures will be devoted to the study of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity and the theoretical foundations for black holes. We will discuss topics of current interest in black hole research: quantum properties of black holes and the most captivating gravitational outcomes from black holes such as frame dragging and relativistic jets.
Week 2: Gravitational Wave astronomy
The lectures in this week will give an overview of gravitational wave astronomy. Topics include the theory of gravitational waves and a discussion of the major astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, most notably inspiraling compact object binaries (i.e. black holes or neutron stars). After an exposition of gravitational wave detectors and an introduction to gravitational wave data-analysis, the recent spectacular observations of gravitational waves by the LIGO/Virgo detectors will be treated.
Complementary Reading
Introduction to general relativity and the theory of black holes
- Carroll, S.M. , Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity
https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/9712019.pdf - Schutz, B., A first course in General Relativity
- Wald, R., General Relativity
- Weinberg, S., Gravitation and Cosmology
- Wald, General Relativity, University of Chicago Press, 1984
- Townsend, B., Black Holes
https://arXiv:gr-qc/9707012 - Kokkotas, K., Schmidt, B., Quasi-Normal Modes of Stars and Black Holes, Living Rev. Relativity, 2 (1999) 2
Gravitational waves
- Flanagan, E., Hughes, S., The Basics of Gravitational Wave Theory
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005NJPh….7..204F - Buonanno, A., Sathyprakash, B.S., Sources of Gravitational Waves: Theory and Observations
https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.7832 - Buonanno, A., Les Houches lecture notes on gravitational waves
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?arXiv:0709.4682 - Sathyaprakash, B., Schutz, B., Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology with Gravitational Waves
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009LRR….12….2S - Riles, K., Gravitational Waves: Sources, Detectors, and Searches
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?arXiv:1209.0667 - Black, E., Gutenkunst, R., An Introduction to Signal Extraction in Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003AmJPh..71..365B - Thorne, K., Gravitational Waves
http://elmer.caltech.edu/ph237/ - Kennefick, D., Controversies in the History of the Radiation Reaction Problem in General Relativity,
https://arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/9704002.pdf - B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger, https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.03837https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102
- B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Run, https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.12907
- B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral, https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05832
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.161101 - B. P. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration), Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger,https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.05833, http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aa91c9