Bernard F. Schutz

Title

Gravitational Wave Detection from Space

Abstract

Gravitational wave detectors on Earth (LIGO and VIRGO) are currently upgrading their sensitivity to a level that should confidently enable the first-ever direct detections of gravitational waves when they turn on again in 2015-16. But to observe the massive black holes that reside in the centers of galaxies, one must get away from the gravitationally noisy Earth. I will review the latest proposal to ESA for a Europe-only space-based mission: eLISA/NGO, which can study black hole mergers in detail, test general relativity at ultra-high precision, provide a census of black hole masses and spins, and most interestingly distinguish between competing scenarios for the formation and growth of massive black holes through hierarchical merger and accretion. By detecting systems out to redshifts of 15, eLISA/NGO can reach through the epoch of re-ionization to provide a glimpse of the earliest individual astronomical systems ever studied.