Related papers: Probing the strong gravity regime with eLISA: Prog…

Space based gravitational wave astronomy will open a completely new window on the Universe and massive black holes binaries are expected to be among the primary actors on this upcoming stage. The New Gravitational-wave Observatory (NGO) is…

We consider a potentially new class of gravitational wave sources consisting of a white dwarf coalescing into a massive black hole in the mass range ~10^4-10^5\msun. These sources are of particular interest because the gravitational wave…

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…

Gravitational waves emitted during intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals (IMRIs) of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) into supermassive black holes could represent a very interesting source for LISA. Similarly, IMRIs of stellar-mass compact…

Extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), where a small compact object inspiralls onto a supermassive black hole, are excellent sources for the space-based laser interferometer gravitational wave (GW) detectors. The presence of dark matter…

I review the scientific potential of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a space-borne gravitational wave (GW) observatory to be launched in the early 30s'. Thanks to its sensitivity in the milli-Hz frequency range, LISA will…

White dwarfs inspiraling into black holes of mass $\MBH\simgt 10^5M_\odot$ are detectable sources of gravitational waves in the LISA band. In many of these events, the white dwarf begins to lose mass during the main observational phase of…

The planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is expected to detect gravitational wave signals from ~100 extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) of stellar-mass compact objects into massive black holes. The long duration and large…

The extreme mass ratio inspiral (EMRI), defined as a stellar-mass compact object inspiraling into a supermassive black hole (SMBH), has been widely argued to be a low-frequency gravitational wave (GW) source. EMRIs providing accurate…

Extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are long-duration gravitational-wave sources in which a compact object gradually spirals into a massive black hole. Their formation is governed by the interplay between stochastic angular-momentum…

We assess the prospects for detecting gravitational wave echoes arising due to the quantum nature of black hole horizons with LISA. In a recent proposal, Bekenstein's black hole area quantization is connected to a discrete absorption…

The exact properties of dark matter remain largely unknown despite the accumulating evidence. If dark matter is composed of weakly interacting massive particles, it would be accreted by the black hole in the galactic center and form a…

The theory of general relativity (GR) is the standard framework for the description of gravitation and the geometric structure of spacetime. With the recent advancement of observational instruments, it has become possible to probe the…

Observations of low frequency gravitational waves by the space-based LISA mission will open a new observational window on the early universe and the emergence of structure. LISA will observe the dynamical coalescence of massive black hole…

We discuss strong gravitational lensing of gravitational waves from merging of massive black hole binaries in the context of the LISA mission. Detection of multiple events would provide invaluable information on competing theories of…

In this thesis we consider the data analysis problem of detecting gravitational waves emitted by inspiraling binary systems. Detection of gravitational waves will open a new window on the Universe enabling direct detection of systems such…

In a recent paper [Ruffa] it was proposed that the massive black hole at the Galactic center may act as a gravitational lens focusing gravitational wave energy to the Earth. Considering the gravitational wave signal emitted by galactic…

Generic black hole binaries radiate gravitational waves anisotropically, imparting a recoil, or kick, velocity to the merger remnant. If a component of the kick along the line of sight is present, gravitational waves emitted during the…

Supermassive black holes are investigated as possible sources for low-frequency bursts of gravity waves. The event rate for `known' supermassive black holes at intermediate and high redshifts, inferred from the quasar luminosity function,…

This text will appear as Section II of Chapter 5 of the book "Black Holes in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy". As a stand alone text, it serves as a brief overview of astrophysics and gravitational wave radiation of extreme mass…