abstract:
Now that ground based gravitational wave detectors are expected to discover
their first signals in the next decade and plans for future facilities are
converging, the field of gravitational wave astrophysics is about to be opened.
I will discuss the different astrophysical sources that produce gravitaitonal
waves and their likely signals and detection rates in the proposed detectors.
For ground based detectors these are mainly compact binary mergers and
possibly supernovae, while for space based detectors such as eLISA, these are
super-massive black holes, extreme mass-ratio inspirals and Galactic binary
stars. I will show the different (astro)physical questions that can be
addressed with these expected observations as well as the importance of having
complementary electro-magnetic observations.
