A specialist discussion meeting organised by:
Gerry Gilmore (Cambridge)
Michael Kramer (Manchester)
Alberto Vecchio (Birmingham)
Graham Woan (Glasgow)
Summary: The field of experimental gravitation has now entered an era that has been termed 'the quest for strong gravity'. Although General Relativity has passed every experimental test so far with flying colours, a number of instruments and observations are promising to put the theory under intense scrutiny over the next decade. Observations of radio pulsars with the Square-Kilometre-Array and its precursors, precision astrometry with GAIA and the expected direct detection of gravitational waves with ground based instruments (Advanced LIGO and Virgo) and the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna are likely to produce a step-change in the field. It is therefore timely to review and discuss the future of observational gravitational physics in the light of these new instruments and the scientific opportunities that they will generate. The aim of the meeting is to bring together a broad range of experts in optical, radio and gravitational-wave astronomy as well as theoretical physics to discuss expected results, synergies and complementarily in the common quest of understanding gravity.
The complete meeting programme can be downloaded from here.
Website: www.ras.org.uk