Theory seminar: Alice Garoffolo, "Wave-optics limit of the stochastic gravitational waves background"

by Alice Garoffolo (Leiden University)

Thursday 6 Oct 2022, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Amsterdam

L017 (CWI)

The stochastic gravitational waves background (SGWB) is a rich resource of cosmological information
encoded both in its source statistics and its anisotropies induced by propagation effects. Indeed,
when the gravitational waves that constitute it travel from their origin to us they encounter cosmic
structures (e.g. galaxies and galaxy clusters) which are able to modify the observed signal. According
to the ratio between the wavelength of the wave and the matter overdensities typical length-scale,
interference and diffraction effects may arise, possibly boosting the signal’s amplitude or inducing a
non-trivial polarization pattern. After giving an overview of the broader context, I will present my
results about the wave-optics limit of the SGWB and describe how we can use them to gain information
about the matter content of the Universe or unveil new exotic objects.