Gravitational-Wave Astronomy Exploring the Dark Side of the Universe

This book is an introduction to gravitational waves and related astrophysics. It provides a bridge across the range of astronomy, physics, and cosmology that comes into play when trying to understand the gravitational-wave sky. Starting with Einstein's theory of gravity, chapters develop the key ideas step by step, leading up to the technology that finally caught these faint whispers from the distant Universe. The second part of the book makes a direct connection with current research, introducing the relevant language and making the involved concepts less 'mysterious'. The book is intended to work as a platform, low enough that anyone with an interest in gravitational waves can scramble onto it, but at the same time high enough to connect readers with active research-and the many exciting discoveries that are happening right now.

1 - Opening the window
2 - A brief survey of general relativity
3 - Gravitational waves
4 - From black holes to stars and the universe at large
5 - Binary inspiral
6 - Spinning stars and cosmic recycling
7 - Catching the wave
8 - Mining the data
9 - The stellar graveyard
10 - Testing relativity
11 - Beyond Newton
12 - Towards the extreme
13 - From oscillations to instabilities
14 - Building mountains
15 - The r-mode instability
16 - Black-hole dynamics
17 - Spinning black holes
18 - Relativistic asteroseismology
19 - Colliding black holes
20 - Cosmic Fireworks
21 - Anatomy of a merger
22 - Whispers from the Big Bang

Nils Andersson is a professor of mathematics and an expert on Einstein's theory of relativity and related astrophysics. He is an elected honorary Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation and was awarded the 2024 Karl Schwarzschild Prize in astrophysics. His research mainly concerns black holes, neutron stars and gravitational waves. Over the last couple of decades, he has actively pursued many issues relevant to the emerging area of gravitational-wave astronomy. His current work focuses on the extreme physics that neutron stars represent, from the state and composition of matter to the dynamical role of the superfluid and superconducting components expected to be present in the core of a mature neutron star.