Gravitational-Wave Research Seminar

Detection of a stochastic gravitational-wave background, created from the superposition of many separately unresolvable sources, is one of the science goals of the next generation of gravitational-wave interferometers such as LIGO and Virgo.  Cosmological backgrounds, created in the early Universe, may tell us about new physics at high energy scales.  Astrophysical backgrounds, meanwhile, will inform our understanding of ensemble properties of objects such as black holes and neutron stars.  In this talk, I will survey the science of stochastic backgrounds and assess the prospects for detection of a gravitational-wave background with advanced detectors.