DR. ARUNAVA MUKHERJEE

Neutron stars being dense, massive, compact objects, are the natural candidates for gravitational wave (GW) sources. The existence of GWs was confirmed with the observation of a double neutron star system by Hulse and Taylor more than four decades ago. Recently, we have directly observed coalescing binary neutron stars (BNS) in GWs with LIGO-Virgo detectors. We have also witnessed near simultaneous detection and counterparts of this event across a wide spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. This single event has unraveled a number of mysteries in fundamental physics and astrophysics. In the first part of his talk, the speaker will highlight some of the key results from this BNS-event. In the second part, he will provide a brief overview of the status of the continuous GW searches from rapidly spinning neutron stars in our Galaxy and our endeavour in this hunt. He will also briefly mention how we can potentially improve the chance of detecting GW-signals utilizing prior knowledge about the sources from X-ray and radio observations.