Theory Meets Data Analysis at Comparable and Extreme Mass Ratios Conference (NRDA/Capra 2010), Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada, 20–26 June 2010

Abstract

This special issue of Classical and Quantum Gravity contains articles submitted in relation to the 'Theory Meets Data Analysis at Comparable and Extreme Mass Ratios' conference held at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada, 20–26 June 2010. This conference, organized by S Fairhurst, G Gonzalez, L Lehner, Y Liu, H Pfeiffer, and E Poisson brought together researchers from three gravitational wave communities: experiment, theory and data analysis, who discussed the latest advances and challenges for detecting and exploiting gravitational waves. Approximately 60 talks spread over one week, together with many lively discussions provided an excellent atmosphere for debate. With so much packed in over seven days there were too many highlights to list specifics here. However, several common themes could be clearly discerned: the tremendous progress achieved in the detector level; the understanding of key comparable-mass systems and the data analysis techniques required for searching for their signals; the significant progress achieved in obtaining predictions in extreme mass ratio scenarios and the understanding of remaining challenges; as well as several new efforts towards making multi-messenger astronomy a reality. This issue contains research articles presented at this conference which, together with online talks (all of which can be found at pirsa.org/C10015), illustrate the level of maturity the field has reached. Many challenges still remain and the communities involved are actively working towards addressing them.

Additional details