Colloq Abstract - Demorest

February 1, 2019

11:00am Mountain

Paul Demorest (NRAO)

 

Recent results from the NANOGrav project

Abstract

Rapidly rotating, magnetized neutron stars (also known as millisecond pulsars; MSPs) emit beams of radio waves that sweep past Earth once per rotation.  By carefully measuring the pulse arrival times using radio telescopes, these sources act as a set of natural clocks distributed throughout our galaxy.  Their stability and extreme densities make them useful for several physics experiments not possible in the lab on Earth.  In this presentation I will describe recent results from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav).  The NANOGrav project monitors a large set of MSPs with the main goal of detecting timing fluctuations from nHz-frequency gravitational waves emitted by supermassive black hole mergers.  A byproduct of this effort is the precise measurement of the masses of many neutron stars, which helps constrain the uncertain equation of state of nuclear matter.

 


 

 

 

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