General Physics Colloquium, Professor David Radice, Penn State

Title:  Multimessenger Astrophysics with Neutron Star Mergers

Host:  Nils Deppe

Abstract:  Neutron star mergers act as Nature's ultimate supercolliders, where two massive objects—each with ~10^58 nucleons—collide at a quarter of the speed of light. These events generate gravitational waves and electromagnetic signals, probing matter under extreme conditions. I will present our group's large-scale simulations modeling these mergers from first principles, discuss insights gained from observations and simulations, and explore how they constrain dense matter behavior. Finally, I will highlight the future potential of next-generation gravitational-wave experiments and the theoretical challenges that must be addressed to maximize their scientific impact.