"From Thin Films to Black Holes: the impact of Thermal
Noise in Gravitational Wave Astronomy"

Steven Penn

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

The detection of gravitational waves was a revolutionary event in physics and astronomy.  The new field of gravitational wave astronomy has the potential to address fundamental questions about our universe and to probe the limits of general relativity.  These investigations would benefit greatly from an increased GW detection rate, but the required improvements in sensitivity demand significant reductions in thermal noise.  I will present the current research efforts to understand and reduce thermal noise for future GW detectors.