These talks will be self-contained presentations of mathematical concepts and theorems. They are intended to be accessible to all mathematics students.
 
 

Einstein's theory of general relativity provides an elegant description of how matter creates gravity and how gravity interacts with matter. In much the same way that information about a light source travels as a wave, information about gravity travels as waves in the very fabric of space. A huge range of things produce gravitational waves, from the collision of two black holes to you walking down the street. Current worldwide research into detecting gravitational radiation has the possibility to show us the inner workings of things like supernovae explosions and even the structure of the very early universe.

This talk will give a brief discussion of general relativity, the nature of gravtiational radiation, how it can be detected and what we might learn about the universe by detecting it.