Seminar Series Abstracts: Oct 5

"Evidence for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves in the NANOGrav 15-yr dataset"

We have recently reported multiple lines of evidence in favor of a stochastic background of gravitational waves in the NANOGrav 15-yr dataset. This result is consistent with findings from other collaborations around the world. In this talk we will discuss the dataset, analyses, and interpretation of our findings, as well as future work. The latter includes a detailed spectral characterization of the signal we have found to better understand its origin, and searches for individual signals that will enable multi-messenger observations of the largest black holes in the universe.