Carlos Sopuerta (CSIC-IEEC)
"Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals: Marbles Rolling down into the Gravity Wells of Massive Black Holes"
ABSTRACT:
Gravitational Wave Astronomy will become a reality as the new generation observatories are endowed with technology to operate at sensitivities where a substantial number of astrophysical and cosmological sources of gravitational waves become "visible". LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, is a planned ESA-NASA space-based observatory that will operate in the low-frequency range. One of the most interesting sources for LISA is the capture and subsequent inspiral of a stellar compact object into a massive black hole, usually known as Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs). In this talk I will describe different aspects of these systems related to their detection by LISA and their potential for scientific discovery in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics.
