Astrophysics with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
P. Amaro-Seoane
Submitted Whitepaper (2022)
Gravitational wave (GW) observations have opened a new way to observe and characterize com- pact objects throughout the Universe and at all cosmic epochs. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) with its low-frequency band coverage spanning nearly three decades, will allow the detection and study of signals from a strikingly large variety of sources, ranging from stellar-mass binaries in our own galaxy to mergers between nascent massive black holes (MBH), called black hole (BH) seeds, at high redshift. LISA is expected to revolutionize our understanding of these astrophysical sources by allowing reconstruction of their demographics and dynamical evolution, as well as discovery of new types of sources, including some that have been theorized but not yet detected by conventional means.