CENTRA Seminar - Astrometric detection of gravitational waves with Gaia - 8 junho 2017

A gravitational wave (GW) causes the apparent positions of distant stars to oscillate with a characteristic pattern on the sky. Astrometric measurements of stellar positions (e.g. those made by Gaia) provide a new opportunity to search for low frequency GWs; e.g. from supermassive black hole binaries in the late stages of inspiral and merger. I will describe how such an astrometric search for GWs can be performed, drawing a comparison with pulsar timing searches, and quantify the sensitivity achievable with Gaia to several sources of astrophysical interest.