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Project

Exploring the stochastic gravitational wave background of cosmological origin: from models to signatures (FWOTM1146)

The discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra (LVK)
collaboration
has opened a novel way to observe our Universe. In particular,
gravitational waves provide a unique window to explore early times
soon after the Big Bang. This research project is focused on the
stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB), a uniform and
continuous signal of gravitational waves that fills the Universe. Such
a background is the superposition of gravitational wave signals from
a large number of independent unresolved sources, which can be of
astrophysical or cosmological origin. The first goal of this PhD is to
explore and model Beyond the Standard Model physics models from
which a SGWB of cosmological origin can emerge, with an emphasis
on multi field phase transitions and domain walls. In parallel, I will join
the anisotropic search group within the LVK collaboration and
develop data analysis techniques for the SGWB, in particular
focusing on its anisotropic properties, where data from the third and
fourth observation runs will be used. With the acquired skills from the
anisotropic search, I will identify under which conditions angular
correlations can separate different cosmological SGWB sources,
thereby making the link with the theoretical modeling.
Date:1 Nov 2022 →  Today
Keywords:Stochastic background of gravitational waves, Beyond the Standard Model Physics
Disciplines:General relativity and gravitation, Gravitational radiation astrophysics, Phenomenological particle physics, Theoretical particle physics