Astronomy Tea Talk

  The direct detection of gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO in the coming years will open up an entirely new window for studying the Universe. At the same time, one of the fastest growing areas in astronomy is wide-field, high-cadence surveys that are revolutionizing our understanding of transient phenomena. I will discuss theoretical work investigating how neutron star mergers may be detected by these transient surveys over a wide range of electromagnetic wavelengths. When used in conjunction with gravitational waves, we will learn things about neutron star mergers which would not be possible if only gravitational or electromagnetic information were used alone. This ranges from probing the magnetic fields of neutron stars, to studying their crusts, to constraining the equation of state of supra-nuclear density matter, which remains a fundamental problem in physics and astrophysics.