Continuous gravitational waves: preparing for the next major discovery

Speaker: Prof. Dr. M. Alessandra Papa，德国马普学会汉诺威爱因斯坦研究所

Inviter: 刘润球研究员

Title: Continuous gravitational waves: preparing for the next major discovery 

Language: English

Time & Venue: 2026.08.12  15:00-17:00  N202

Abstract: Gravitational-wave astronomy has opened a new window on the Universe, but the signals observed so far have been solely short-lived events from compact-object mergers. A different class of signals-continuous gravitational waves from rapidly rotating neutron stars-has yet to be detected.
Such a discovery could reveal otherwise invisible neutron stars, probe their internal structure, and enable new tests of fundamental physics. Remarkably, current searches are already sensitive to extremely small deformations of neutron stars within our Galaxy and can place meaningful astrophysical constraints even in the absence of a detection.
The question is how and when the first detection will be made. Advancing this field requires searches of exceptional sensitivity, sophisticated data-analysis methods, large-scale computing resources, and a detailed understanding of the relevant emission mechanisms and source populations. Developing and bringing together these capabilities has been a central focus of my research over the past two decades.
In this talk, I will review recent observational results and use them to illustrate the major scientific, computational, and methodological challenges that underlie the search for continuous gravitational waves.