The Gravitational Universe
Abstract
The last century has seen enormous progress in our understanding of the Universe. We know the life cycles of stars, the structure of galaxies, the remnants of the big bang, and have a general understanding of how the Universe evolved. We have come remarkably far using electromagnetic radiation as our tool for observing the Universe. However, gravity is the engine behind many of the processes in the Universe, and much of its action is dark. Opening a gravitational window on the Universe will let us go further than any alternative. Gravity has its own messenger: Gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime. They travel essentially undisturbed and let us peer deep into the formation of the first seed black holes, exploring redshifts as large as z ~ 20, prior to the epoch of cosmic re-ionisation. Exquisite and unprecedented measurements of black hole masses and spins will make it possible to trace the history of black holes across all stages of galaxy evolution, and at the same time constrain any deviation from the Kerr metric of General Relativity. eLISA will be the first ever mission to study the entire Universe with gravitational waves. eLISA is an all-sky monitor and will offer a wide view of a dynamic cosmos using gravitational waves as new and unique messengers to unveil The Gravitational Universe. It provides the closest ever view of the early processes at TeV energies, has guaranteed sources in the form of verification binaries in the Milky Way, and can probe the entire Universe, from its smallest scales around singularities and black holes, all the way to cosmological dimensions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1305.5720,
title = {The Gravitational Universe},
author = {The eLISA Consortium and : and P. Amaro Seoane and S. Aoudia and H. Audley and G. Auger and S. Babak and J. Baker and E. Barausse and S. Barke and M. Bassan and V. Beckmann and M. Benacquista and P. L. Bender and E. Berti and P. Binétruy and J. Bogenstahl and C. Bonvin and D. Bortoluzzi and N. C. Brause and J. Brossard and S. Buchman and I. Bykov and J. Camp and C. Caprini and A. Cavalleri and M. Cerdonio and G. Ciani and M. Colpi and G. Congedo and J. Conklin and N. Cornish and K. Danzmann and G. de Vine and D. DeBra and M. Dewi Freitag and L. Di Fiore and M. Diaz Aguilo and I. Diepholz and R. Dolesi and M. Dotti and G. Fernández Barranco and L. Ferraioli and V. Ferroni and N. Finetti and E. Fitzsimons and J. Gair and F. Galeazzi and A. Garcia and O. Gerberding and L. Gesa and D. Giardini and F. Gibert and C. Grimani and P. Groot and F. Guzman Cervantes and Z. Haiman and H. Halloin and G. Heinzel and M. Hewitson and C. Hogan and D. Holz and A. Hornstrup and D. Hoyland and C. D. Hoyle and M. Hueller and S. Hughes and P. Jetzer and V. Kalogera and N. Karnesis and M. Kilic and C. Killow and W. Klipstein and E. Kochkina and N. Korsakova and A. Krolak and S. Larson and M. Lieser and T. Littenberg and J. Livas and I. Lloro and D. Mance and P. Madau and P. Maghami and C. Mahrdt and T. Marsh and I. Mateos and L. Mayer and D. McClelland and K. McKenzie and S. McWilliams and S. Merkowitz and C. Miller and S. Mitryk and J. Moerschell and S. Mohanty and A. Monsky and G. Mueller and V. Müller and G. Nelemans and D. Nicolodi and S. Nissanke and M. Nofrarias and K. Numata and F. Ohme and M. Otto and M. Perreur-Lloyd and A. Petiteau and E. S. Phinney and E. Plagnol and S. Pollack and E. Porter and P. Prat and A. Preston and T. Prince and J. Reiche and D. Richstone and D. Robertson and E. M. Rossi and S. Rosswog and L. Rubbo and A. Ruiter and J. Sanjuan and B. S. Sathyaprakash and S. Schlamminger and B. Schutz and D. Schütze and A. Sesana and D. Shaddock and S. Shah and B. Sheard and C. F. Sopuerta and A. Spector and R. Spero and R. Stanga and R. Stebbins and G. Stede and F. Steier and T. Sumner and K. -X. Sun and A. Sutton and T. Tanaka and D. Tanner and I. Thorpe and M. Tröbs and M. Tinto and H. -B. Tu and M. Vallisneri and D. Vetrugno and S. Vitale and M. Volonteri and V. Wand and Y. Wang and G. Wanner and H. Ward and B. Ware and P. Wass and W. J. Weber and Y. Yu and N. Yunes and P. Zweifel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1305.5720},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
20 pages; submitted to the European Space Agency on May 24th, 2013 for the L2/L3 selection of ESA's Cosmic Vision program