NBIA Junior Colloquia: Jose Maria Ezquiaga

Title: Exploring the uncharted Universe with Gravitational Waves

Abstract: 

Every time that we have been able to look further into the Universe, we have found fascinating surprises. Most notably, we observe that an omnipresent dark energy pushes the Universe to expand ever faster, and that its large-scale structures hold together only because of an invisible dark matter. We do not understand how cosmic structures form, and even if our laws of gravity are valid at all scales. Gravitational waves (GWs) – ripples in space and time produced by extreme gravitational systems in the cosmos such as binary black holes – offer a unique opportunity to answer these fundamental open questions. 

In this Colloquium we will adventure into uncharted regions of the Universe and explore how present and future gravitational wave observations will constrain the expansion rate of the Universe and probe dark matter substructures. I will also highlight the work we are doing at NBI as part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and how you can get involved.  

Bio: 

Jose M. Ezquiaga joined NBIA as an Assistant Professor in 2022. Previously, he was a NASA Einstein Fellow at the University of Chicago. He obtained his PhD from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2019. Jose’s research exploits gravitational wave observations to lead new discoveries at the intersection of fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. He is interested about the origin of the observed binary black holes, the nature of dark energy and how to probe the dark matter structures through gravitational lensing. At NBI, Jose is a Villum Young Investigator and leads the LIGO group.