Gravitational Waves and Fundamental Physics - Probing Beyond the Standard Model

Explore fundamental physics and gravitational waves in this comprehensive lecture that delves into the groundbreaking experimental detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes and neutron stars. Learn about various cosmological sources of gravitational waves, their detection methods, and their potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. Understand key concepts including inflation-related tensor perturbations, Primordial Black Holes (PBH), Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background (SGWB) signals, cosmological first-order Phase Transitions, and topological defects like cosmic strings and domain walls. Discover how recent findings from NANO-Grav, InPTA, and other PTA collaborations provide the first evidence of SGWB detection, and examine the implications for high-scale physics research that may be otherwise unattainable through conventional experiments. Gain insights into how gravitational wave signals might reveal modifications to general relativity while connecting particle physics, cosmology, and gravitational wave research.