Cosmology and Fundamental Physics in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy

Understand

The advent of gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy has presented us with a completely new means for observing the Universe, allowing us to probe its structure and evolution like never before.

• In this thesis, we explore three distinct but complementary avenues for using GW observations to gain new insights into cosmology and fundamental physics.
• In chapter 1, we study the astrophysical GW background (AGWB): the cumulative GW signal arising from a large number of compact binary coalescences (CBCs) throughout the Universe.
• Since these compact binaries reside in galaxies, the AGWB contains anisotropies that trace out the large-scale structure of the cosmic matter distribution.