Gravitational Waves, LISA & Dark Matter Black Holes: Laura Burn | Astrophiz 244

What are gravitational waves, and could primordial black holes be dark matter? Astrophysicist Laura Byrne (University of Auckland) explains how the LISA space mission could detect them. Astrophiz podcast Episode 244.

Laura Byrne is a PhD candidate modelling gravitational waves from merging black holes ahead of LISA, the first gravitational wave observatory in space. Her current work asks whether tiny primordial black holes orbiting supermassive black holes like Sagittarius A* could produce gravitational wave signals loud enough for LISA to detect, and what that would tell us about dark matter. She won the Kerr Prize for best student talk at the Australasian Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation.

IN THIS EPISODE

- What are gravitational waves? Ripples in spacetime, "hearing the universe", and over 300 detections since 2015

- The LISA mission: a gravitational wave detector 2.5 million kilometres long vs 5 km for LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA

- Primordial black holes as a dark matter candidate

- Modelling gravitational waves in Python: hyperbolic orbits, signal-to-noise ratios and the LISA global fit

- Machine learning and AI in gravitational wave data analysis

- Planetarium presenting, science education research and equity in physics

- Early career advice: why universities should value teaching

- What to watch next: Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Roman Space Telescope

ABOUT LAURA BYRNE