Gayathri Vivekana (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)

"Discovering Extraordinary Black Hole Mergers and their Origin"

Abstract: The era of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy began with the first direct detection of the GW signal observed on 14th September 2015. We have developed an unmodeled detection method capable of identifying GW signals from extraordinary binary mergers concealed within detector noise, eliminating the need for precise models. This approach has played a pivotal role in advancing gravitational wave astronomy, which includes the first direct detection of GW as well as the detection of intermediate-mass black hole. By the end of the third observational run, we detected more than 90 GW signals from compact binary mergers. Active research is being done to understand the astrophysical origin of these detected mergers. In my talk, I will summarise my contributions towards this endeavour, which includes but is not limited to astrophysical source interpretations and formation scenarios of the binary black hole mergers.

Bio: Gayathri V earned her B.Sc. from Government College Chitture, Palakkad, India, in 2011 and completed her Ph.D. in Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2020. Her doctoral research, under the guidance of Prof. Archana Pai, focused on gravitational wave astronomy, with a specific emphasis on detection algorithms for gravitational wave transients using interferometric detectors. She stated working with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since 2015.

In her postdoctoral journey, Gayathri became a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Florida, Florida, from 2020 to 2022, working under the guidance of Prof. Imre Bartos. She continued her postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, starting in summer 2022 under the mentorship of Prof. Jolien Creighton and Prof. Patrick Brady.