Prof. Bhupal Dev

Extreme astrophysical environments like neutron star mergers provide a new window of opportunity in our quest for physics beyond the Standard Model. We will discuss new constraints on light dark sector particles using the multi-messenger observations of the neutron star merger event GW170817 in both gravitational wave and electromagnetic frequency bands. We argue that with more merger statistics from gravitational wave observatories, and more accurate data on the spectral and temporal profiles of the electromagnetic signals from future mergers, these constraints can be significantly improved. We also extend our study to binary white dwarf mergers, which LISA might be able to observe in the future.