“ACTPol: An instrument for small-scale CMB polarization observations” Speaker: Emily Grace, Princeton University ACTPol is a polarization sensitive upgrade to the Atacama Cosmology Telescope which aims to probe the small scale polarization anisotropy of the CMB, a signal which promises to constrain the sum of the neutrino masses and the…

Title: Roche Accretion Of Stars Close To Massive Black Holes Speaker: Lixin (Jane) Dai Stanford University Abstract: We consider the Roche accretion in an Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspiral (EMRI) binary system formed by a star orbiting a massive black hole. The ultimate goal is to constrain the mass and spin of the black hole and confirm general…

Speaker John Appel, Princeton “Observing the Multiverse with Cosmic Wakes
Fethi M Ramazanoglu, journal discussion on "Nothing" by A. Brown & A. Dahlen Guilherme Pimentel - journal discussion TBD
http://www.physics.princeton.edu/cosmology/journalclub/

Inaugural Math-Physics GR Seminar Speaker: Mihalis Dafermos, University of Cambridge “The mathematical approach to general relativity"
***Lunch will be provided***

Cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization is the ultimate probe of primordial gravity waves in the early universe, via the B-mode (or parity odd) signal on degree angular scales. A detection of such a signal would be strong evidence of the inflation scenario and represent indirect observation of a fundamentally new phenomenon near the grand…

Speaker: Paul Chesler (MIT) Title: Holography and the collision of gravitational waves in asymptotically AdS_5 Abstract: In recent years holography has emerged as a powerful tool to study non-equilibrium phenomena in certain quantum theories, mapping challenging quantum dynamics onto the classical dynamics of gravitational fields in one…