Introduction

This course offers an introduction to extreme-mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) and their study through the LISA mission. Students will explore the theoretical aspects of astrophysical relativity relevant to the generation, evolution and detection of gravitational waves. We will examine the scientific benefits of EMRIs from the viewpoint of fundamental physics, astrophysics, and applied mathematics. We also address the main points of the observational strategies and analysis techniques.

Lecturer Intro

I am working at the Institute for Multidisciplinary Mathematics of the Universitat Politècnica de València, I am also affiliated at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and at the group of Nobel laureate Reinhard Genzel. My background is in theoretical physics in Spain and I did my PhD on astrophysics at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2004 I have been working on gravitational waves, mostly from the point of view of source formation and evolution. I like to talk to people outside my research field, so I have been gradually expanding my interests: from accretion discs to tidal disruptions, stellar collisions, and supermassive black hole seed formation. However, lately my strongest interest lies in the connection between gravitational wave astrophysics with fundamental physics and spacetime geometry around supermassive black holes.