Gravitational wave sources and the (future) use of the La Palma telescopes / Seminar Series (3)

Speaker:Paul Groot
Affiliation:University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Title: Gravitational wave sources and the (future) use of the La Palma  telescopes
Date: 9 February  2011
Place: ING+NOT Astro-seminar- Santa Cruz-La Palma- Spain

Abstract:
The gravitational wave domain remains the last completely unopened window on the Universe. Ground-based high frequency detectors are already operational, but lack known sources. The low-frequency domain will be opened by the LISA space interferometer. The only known LISA sources are ultracompact white dwarf binaries. In a campaign involving many of the  
La Palma telescopes we are uncovering and characterizing the Galactic
population of these ultracompact binaries, with orbital periods as short
as 5.6 minutes. In the talk I will give an overview of the current state of affairs, our use of the La Palma telescopes, and the (possible) future (combined) use of the telescopes.