Abstract:
If a set of massive objects collide in space and the fragments disperse, possibly forming black holes, then this process will emit gravitational waves. Computing the detailed gravitational wave-form associated with this process is a complicated problem, not only due to the non-linearity of gravity but also due to the fact that during the collision and subsequent fragmentation the objects could undergo complicated non-gravitational interactions. Nevertheless the classical soft graviton theorem determines the power law fall-off of the wave-form at late and early times, including logarithmic corrections, in terms of only the momenta of the incoming and outgoing objects without any reference to what transpired during the collision. In this talk I shall explain the results and briefly outline the derivation of these results.




Professor Ashoke Sen received his PhD degree from Stony Brook University in 1982 in the field of Theoretical High Energy Physics. After spending a few years at Fermilab and SLAC as post-doctoral fellows, he returned to India and joined the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in 1988. In 1995 he moved to the Harish-Chandra Research Institute at Allahabad. After spending 26 years there, he joined the International Center for Theoretical Sciences at Bengaluru in 2021, where he is at present.