The Department of Physics welcomes Dr. Lee McCuller for their weekly colloquium.

Abstract: The advanced LIGO gravitational wave observatories operate with unprecedented sensitivity to perturbations in spacetime. As of the current ongoing observing run, this is in part from modifying the quantum mechanical properties of light by injecting squeezed states into the instrument. In this talk I will outline gravitational wave astrophysics, the detectors, and how quantum optomechanics helps us see ever more distant cosmic events.