Probing the horizon of black holes with gravitational waves
About this ebook
Black holes are the most compact objects in the Universe. According to general relativity, black holes have a horizon that hides a singularity where Einstein’s theory breaks down. Recently, gravitational waves have opened the possibility of probing the existence of horizons and investigating the nature of compact objects. This is particularly interesting given some quantum-gravity models which predict the presence of horizonless and singularity-free compact objects. This thesis derives the gravitational-wave signal emitted by horizonless compact objects for model-independent tests of the black hole paradigm.
About the author
Elisa Maggio is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow working on tests of general relativity and gravitational-wave physics at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany. Her research project, “Testing the horizon of black holes with gravitational waves”, aims to provide the first limits on the existence of horizons in black holes with gravitational-wave observations. Elisa obtained her PhD in Physics with honours from Sapienza University of Rome in 2022. Her PhD thesis received four awards from the Amaldi Research Center, the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation (SIGRAV) and Sapienza University Press.