The Department of Mathematics is hosting a series of colloquia, open for all to attend. On 5 June 2025, Ashoke Sen from the ICTS, Bangalore will give a talk on 'Classical Gravitational Wave Tails from Soft Theorem.'

Registration:

This talk will take place in person at King's College London in the Bush House Lecture Theatre 2, BH(S)4.04. It will be streamed online via Microsoft Teams. Please click 'Register for this event' to sign up for either an In-Person Ticket or an Online Ticket. If you wish to attend the in-person event, you must select the correct ticket type.

A reception will follow afterwards in Bush House (SE) 2.12.

Abstract: 

Classical Gravitational Wave Tails from Soft Theorem

If a set of massive objects collide in space and the fragments disperse, possibly forming black holes, then this process will emit gravitational waves. Computing the detailed gravitational wave-form associated with this process is a complicated problem, not only due to the non-linearity of gravity but also due to the fact that during the collision and subsequent fragmentation the objects could undergo complicated non-gravitational interactions. Nevertheless the classical soft graviton theorem determines the power law fall-off of the wave-form at late and early times, including logarithmic corrections, in terms of only the momenta of the incoming and outgoing objects without any reference to what transpired during the collision. I shall explain the results, briefly outline the derivation of these results and discuss possible generalizations and applications.

About the Speaker: 

Ashoke Sen is a prominent Indian theoretical physicist, currently based at ICTS Bangalore. He earned his PhD from SUNY Stony Brook in 1982 and is widely recognized for his fundamental contributions to high-energy physics, particularly in string theory. His work has deepened our understanding of the symmetries in string theory and provided important insights into the quantum aspects of black holes and gravity.

He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the 2012 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the 2014 Dirac Medal from ICTP. Beyond his scientific achievements, Ashoke Sen is an experienced and engaging speaker, known for delivering talks across a wide range of audiences—from technical seminars to public lectures. We are delighted and honoured to welcome him to our colloquium!

Learn more about Ashoke Sen's life and work, from the ICTS and also on Wikipedia.

 

Future colloquia

Please check our event series for details of upcoming speakers.