Blackholes

Gravitational Waves and the Hunt for the Missing Black Holes, by Prof Paul Callanan -…

Paul Callanan was awarded a PhD in 1987 from NUI Galway (NUIG) and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). He was a Research Associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford from 1987 to 1991. Under a Hubble Fellowship he attended the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a Fellow and Research Associate from 1991 to 1996. He was appointed as a College Lecturer in University College, Cork (UCC) in 1996, and is currently a professor (grade 2) in the Department of Physics.

His research interests include multiwavelength studies of interacting binary star systems, in which he combines X-ray, optical and infrared (IR) observations from ground based and orbiting observatories to study the processes occurring in neutron stars and black holes as they interact with their companions. He also studies X-ray binaries, cataclysmic variables, and pulsars, in our Galaxy and beyond.

Questions in his research include:

* Can we reliably measure the masses of black holes and neutron stars?
* Are there any other black hole signatures aside from their mass?
* How do neutron star/black hole accretion disks evolve?
* What are the main mechanisms by which they radiate?
* How many black holes exist in our Galaxy?

Paul collaborates with researchers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; the Department of Astronomy in Berkeley, California; San Francisco State University; Notre Dame University; the Open University, and others.

He has served on review committees for both NASA and ESA (including orbiting observatories such as the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, XMM-Newton, and Chandra X-ray observatory, and on other ESA review committees), and at ground based observatories. He also serves as a reviewer for astronomical journals, and was part of the national effort to develop a radio telescope in Birr, Co Offaly, under the I-LOFAR consortium. LOFAR is a Europe-wide network of radio telescopes that observes the universe at low radio frequencies.

As a principal and co-investigator, he has been awarded time on telescopes in Chile and the US (Arizona and Hawaii), and on X-ray satellite observatories, in international, peer-reviewed competition. He has served as chair of the Astronomy and Space Sciences Committee of the Royal Irish Academy, and played a central role in the restoration of the Crawford Observatory (built in 1880) in UCC.

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Prof Paul Callanan is a long-time supporter of Cork Astronomy Club, and was made a lifelong Honorary Member in return. In this lecture to Cork Astronomy Club on 11 April 2022, the first held in person at University College, Cork, since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Paul (presenting via Zoom because of unforeseen circumstances) provides a background on the discovery and observation of black holes, and recent developments in detecting black hole mergers through the detection of gravitational waves.

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