Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics (INPA) at LBNL

The INPA Seminar weekly talks are on Fridays, starting at 12:00 pm, unless informed otherwise. The seminar talk starts with a brief presentation of the weekly scientific news. Typically, the talks conclude by 1:00 pm. The seminars are held in the Sessler Conference Room,  located in Bldg. 50A- 5132.

The committee members are:

The seminar schedule for the Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics (INPA) is tentative and becomes final a few days before the Friday talk.

Please send all suggestions for future INPA talks and speakers to the INPA Committee.

To be added to the INPA News Mailing List, please contact Erica Hall.

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Jose Ezquiaga (UAM) – Testing dark energy and gravity with the speed of gravitational waves

June 2, 2017 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

LIGO’s gravitational waves (GWs) detection has inaugurated an era to test the foundations of gravity. This includes also probing the nature of Dark Energy. Theories explaining the present acceleration of the Universe beyond the cosmological constant typically require adding extra gravitational degrees of freedom. This can lead to distinct signatures in the propagation of GWs. I will review current tests of gravity over different scales and regimes, and examine different frameworks describing dynamical dark energy. Then, focusing on the case of only one additional degree of freedom, I will present how the speed of GWs could be used to place severe constraints on generic scalar-tensor theories of gravity. I will describe under which circumstances an anomalous propagation speed can arise, and how it could be measured in the near future. If there is a small deviation from the speed of light, the delay between the GW and any electromagnetic counterpart will run beyond human time scales. Still, this measurement could be achieved with LISA using eclipsing white dwarf binaries. This test will either eliminate many contender models for cosmic acceleration or wreck a fundamental pillar of general relativity.

Details

Date:
June 2, 2017
Time:
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

INPA guests from campus can now come to the lab early on Fridays. The INPA Common Room (50-5026) is reserved for our guests from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Note that the seminars are now held in 50A-5132 to accommodate a more significant number of attendees.

CPTea Series (also known as INPA Tea Series)

The Physics Division CPTea Series invites you to an In-Person Tea Series 1st Friday of every month at 3:30 pm INPA Conference Room 50-5026.

Everyone is welcome to attend the open forum. Tea and light refreshments will be served.

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INPA Common Room (50-5026)
Fridays
3:30 pm

Access to the Lab

For a shuttle pass, please email Erica Hall. The pass is only valid for the day of the seminar.

Erica Hall