Gravitational Waves, LISA & Dark Matter Black Holes: Laura Burn | Astrophiz 244
Astronomy Astrophiz PodcastShow Notes
What are gravitational waves, and could primordial black holes be dark matter? Astrophysicist Laura Byrne (University of Auckland) explains how the LISA space mission could detect them. Astrophiz podcast Episode 244.
Laura Byrne is a PhD candidate modelling gravitational waves from merging black holes ahead of LISA, the first gravitational wave observatory in space. Her current work asks whether tiny primordial black holes orbiting supermassive black holes like Sagittarius A* could produce gravitational wave signals loud enough for LISA to detect, and what that would tell us about dark matter. She won the Kerr Prize for best student talk at the Australasian Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation.
IN THIS EPISODE - What are gravitational waves? Ripples in spacetime, "hearing the universe", and over 300 detections since 2015 - The LISA mission: a gravitational wave detector 2.5 million kilometres long vs 5 km for LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA - Primordial black holes as a dark matter candidate - Modelling gravitational waves in Python: hyperbolic orbits, signal-to-noise ratios and the LISA global fit - Machine learning and AI in gravitational wave data analysis - Planetarium presenting, science education research and equity in physics - Early career advice: why universities should value teaching - What to watch next: Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the Roman Space Telescope
ABOUT LAURA BYRNE PhD candidate, University of Auckland (supervisor Prof Richard Easther). Integrated master's degree, University of Exeter. Planetarium presenter at Stardome, teaching fellow, and equity advocate in physics.
FULL TRANSCRIPT AND SHOW NOTES astrophiz.com Laura's Study with Laura videos: YouTube Lecture: A Human History of Looking Up: From Stargazing to Space Lasers
ABOUT ASTROPHIZ Astrophiz is an independent, ad-free, unsponsored astrophysics podcast hosted by Brendan O'Brien, with over 240 episodes featuring the world's leading space scientists. New interviews on the 15th of each month, and Dr Ian Musgrave's SkyGuide on the 1st. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud and YouTube.
Produced on Yorta Yorta Country. Clear skies!
More from Astronomy Astrophiz Podcast
Dr Ian 'Astroblog' Musgrave returns with your October 2026 Sky Guide for Australian skies, including Saturn at opposition (October 4), Mars crossing the Beehive Cluster (M44), the Orionid meteor shower, a daylight Lunar X on the 18th, and the occultation of Elnath (Beta Tauri) on October 29–30.
Is dark matter finally showing itself? In this episode of Astrophiz, Dr Sophia Gad-Nasr — particle cosmologist, science communicator, and creator of @AstropartiGirl — returns for her second appearance on the show (her first was Episode 90, back in 2019) to unpack the tantalising 2.6-sigma signal detected by the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment, buried deep underground in South Dakota.
Dr Ian 'Astroblog' Musgrave returns with your essential guide to the September night sky — Venus at its greatest brilliancy (mag -4.5), the Moon's occultation of Antares, and Mercury lining up with Venus and Spica at dusk.
Trevor Barry — the Outback Astronomer — is a world-renowned planetary imager whose backyard observatory in Broken Hill, NSW, produces scientific-grade Jupiter and Saturn data used by NASA. In this episode of Astrophiz, host Brendan O'Brien travels to the outback to sit down with Trevor at his custom-built observatory.
How do we "autopsy" a galaxy from billions of light-years away? Join world-renowned astrophysicist Dr. Elisabete da Cunha as she sits down with Astrophiz host Brendan O’Brien to explore the life, evolution, and eventual "death" of the most massive structures in the universe.