Gravitational radiation sources and signatures

Abstract

The goal of these lecture notes is to introduce the developing research area of gravitational-wave phenomenology. In more concrete terms, they are meant to provide an overview of gravitational-wave sources and an introduction to the interpretation of real gravitational wave detector data. They are, of course, limited in both regards. Either topic could be the subject of one or more books, and certainly more than the few lectures possible in a summer school. Nevertheless, it is possible to talk about the problems of data analysis and give something of their flavor, and do the same for gravitational wave sources that might be observed in the upcoming generation of sensitive detectors. These notes are an attempt to do just that.