P&A Colloquium: Antonella Palmese, “Probing the Universe’s expansion with multi-messenger astronomy”

Join the Department of Physics and Astronomy on Wednesday, March 5 at 2:30pm in White Hall G09 for a colloquium presented by Giti Khodaparast (Virginia Tech). The title of the talk is, “Phononics and Magnonics in Materials with Strong Magneto-Electric Couplings.” A reception will precede the colloquium at 2:00pm in White Hall 105/111.

Abstract

Thanks to the synergies between gravitational wave (GW) experiments, such as LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA, and electromagnetic observations of transients and galaxies, a variety of novel cosmological measurements has recently become possible. Several of these measurements rely on the use of GW events as “standard sirens”. Following the detection of the first electromagnetic counterpart to a GW event, GW170817, the first “bright” standard siren measurement has been performed. We continue searching for optical counterparts to enable more bright siren analyses with the Gravitational Wave Multi-Messenger Astronomy DECam Survey (GW-MMADS), which I will introduce. Standard siren measurements for “dark” events, i.e. without a confirmed electromagnetic counterpart, can also been performed, using cross-correlations with galaxy or Active Galactic Nuclei catalogs. In this talk I will present our latest bright and dark standard siren measurements, and also provide forecasts for multi-messenger detections in the upcoming years.

Biography

Antonella Palmese is an Assistant Professor in the McWilliams Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics at Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining Carnegie Mellon, she was a NASA Einstein Fellow at the University of California Berkeley. She obtained her PhD from University College London. Her expertise lies at the interface between transients and galaxies observed by optical surveys and LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA gravitational waves sources. She is co-leading the DECam survey that is following up gravitational wave events during the fourth LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA observing run, as well as the DESI Transients Survey on DECam. She is heavily involved in the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey, within which she co-chairs the DESI Transients and Low-Redshift Cosmology Working Group.