Event

Gravitational wave observations offer unique probes onto the nature of astrophysical bodies in coalescing binary systems. As a binary approaches merger, its dynamics is sensitive to the tidal deformability of the binary components, which are quantified by the so-called “Love numbers”. In this talk, I first describe the Love numbers of Kerr black holes and neutron stars, which are known LIGO-Virgo sources. I then discuss current efforts to detect new types of compact objects, specifically those with large Love numbers, in the LIGO-Virgo O1-O3 data.