1:30 PM–3:18 PM, Monday, April 14, 2008
Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront (formerly Adam's Mark Hotel), - Promenade B
Sponsoring Unit:
DAP
Chair: Scott Hughes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2:06 PM–2:42 PM
Alessandra Buonanno
(University of Maryland)
The coalescence of two black holes is one of the most energetic events in the Universe, emitting 2-8\% of the initial rest-mass energy in gravitational waves. I will review how recent work at the interface between analytical and numerical relativity is improving our understanding of the binary black hole dynamics and gravitational-wave emission throughout inspiral, merger and ringdown phases. I will discuss the implications of those results in the search for gravitational-waves with ground and space based detectors, and in astrophysics, notably for the distribution of recoil velocities from merging black holes.