Colloquium on Aug. 13th, 2019

Pulsars, gravitational waves and fuzzy dark matter

Speaker: Xingjiang Zhu (Monash University)

Venue: Room 2317, SWIFAR Building

Time: 3:00 PM, Tuesday, 13th August, 2019

Abstract: 

Pulsars are unique cosmic laboratories with a range of astrophysical applications. Observations of binary pulsar systems provided the first indirect evidence for the existence of gravitational waves. The exceptional rotational stability of millisecond pulsars can be exploited to construct a pulsar timing array as a Galactic-scale detector for nanohertz gravitational waves. In this talk, I will discuss three broadly related research topics. First, I will present a new framework that enables the inference of neutron star population properties (e.g., equation of state and magnetic field evolution) through the synergy of radio observations of Galactic double neutron stars and gravitational-wave measurements of neutron star mergers. Second, I will present some new predictions on the gravitational wave background formed by supermassive binary black holes, which is the primary target for international pulsar timing array efforts. Lastly, I will present constraints on fuzzy dark matter using the Australian Parkes Pulsar Timing Array.

Personal Information:

Dr. ZHU Xingjiang is currently an OzGrav Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Before joining Monash in July 2017, Dr. Zhu was first a PhD student (2011-15) and then a Research Associate (2015-17) at University of Western Australia. Prior to that, Dr. Zhu obtained his BSc (2004-08) and MSc (2008-11) degrees in Astronomy from Beijing Normal University.

Dr. Zhu's research interests include detecting nanohertz gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays, gravitational-wave astrophysics with ground-based laser interferometers such as LIGO, supermassive binary black holes and studying the neutron star population with gravitational-wave and radio pulsar observations. Dr. Zhu is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array collaboration and the International Pulsar Timing Array collaboration.