Session P01: Plenary: Multi-Messenger Probes of Fundamental Physics

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Celebrating the 50-anniversary for Physical Review Series   

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Following the groundbreaking discoveries of gravitational wave events GW150419 and GW170817, we are shaping a new era of Physics and Astronomy in which gravitational waves, photons and neutrinos combine to provide multi-sensory vision, probing celestial bodies not seen before, revealing missing chapters in the story of the Universe’s birth and development, and posing unexpected challenges and riddles. In this talk I will discuss the potential for multi-messenger observations that include gravitational waves with current and future detectors over the next couple of decades, and what the combined data can teach us about the Universe.   

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The recent 2nd data release of the Gaia mission is revolutionizing our understanding of the Milky Way and its constituents. In this talk, I will highlight a few of the results stemming from the analysis of this truly spectacular dataset. In particular, I will focus on what we have learned about the dynamics and assembly of the Milky Way thus far.   

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Pursuing insights into fundamental physics beyond the reach of terrestrial (or even Solar System) experiments motivates much observational astronomy. Among NASA's recent efforts in this arena is the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission: its key science objective is to probe the physics of matter at the highest stable densities anywhere in the universe, found only in the cores of neutron stars. These objects are also remarkable for their strong gravity (second only to black holes), for anchoring the most powerful magnetic fields known, and for their extraordinary spin rates---a flywheel the size of Washington, D.C., containing up to twice the Sun's mass with a trillion times its magnetic field strength, and rotating several hundred times per second is surely one of nature's most outrageous offerings and host to plenty of unusual physics. Launched in 2017 to the International Space Station (ISS), the NICER payload observes neutron stars and other astrophysical targets in the "soft" X-ray band, at photon energies between 0.2 and 12 keV. I present the NICER mission and its central role in deepening our understanding of the physics governing neutron stars, black holes, and other celestial sources of X-rays.