Abstract
With around 100 detections in their first three observing runs, the gravitational-wave detectors LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA have made the observation of black-hole mergers almost routine. This has allowed us not only to start to explore how these objects populate our universe but also gain important insights about black-hole formation, large-scale structure of the Universe and the behaviour of gravity in its strongest regime. Black-hole recoils are a strong-gravity effect by which the remnant of a black-hole merger can recoil at speeds up to O(1000)km/s, enough to expel it from almost any host environment therefore greatly impacting hierarchical black-hole formation scenarios. I will present how black-hole recoils can be measured from gravitational-wave data, including the first existing measurements. Further, I will show how kick information can be applied in two very different fields. First, to reconstruct the formation history of black holes observed by LIGO Virgo and KAGRA. Second, to inform joint gravitational-electromagnetic observations of black-hole mergers occuring in Active Galactic Nuclei that can then serve as probes of the Hubble constant.
Biography
Juan Calderon-Bustillo is an Assistant Professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) where he did his undergrad. Previously, he completed his Ph.D in 2015 at the University of the Balearic Islands in 2015, to then undertake two postdoctoral positions at Georgia Tech and Monash University. In 2020, he joined CUHK as a Research Assistant Professor before moving back to Santiago de Compostela, first as a Junior Group Leader (under a "La Caixa" Junior Leader Fellowship and a Marie Curie Fellowship) and now as an Assistant Professor (Under a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship). Juan has been a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since 2012 and has also recently explored the private sector for around a year, working both for Capgemini and FC Barcelona.
Anyone interested is welcome to attend.