Gravitational waves: a new ear on the chemistry of galaxies

The fields of gravitational-wave astrophysics and galaxy evolution have a vast amount to learn from one another. Understanding the evolution and chemical enrichment of galaxies is crucial to unravelling the evolutionary origin of black hole/neutron star mergers, which are now regularly detected via gravitational waves. Correspondingly, these gravitational-wave events offer a new observational tool with which to probe the evolution and enrichment of galaxies over cosmic time. This complementarity brings unique opportunities for synergies and collaboration.

The aim of this meeting is to i) get communities together and foster interaction and exploration and ii) identify future opportunities and start new collaborations. This will be a strongly interactive workshop, with large part of the program reserved for discussions, unstructured interaction and breakout discussions.

Intensifying this cross-topical conversation is timely. We now have more than one hundred confirmed gravitational-wave observations of merging double compact objects, with potentially hundreds more revealed in the ongoing LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run. As we speak, the IR imaging and spectroscopic capabilities of the JWST are revolutionizing the field of early galaxy evolution and chemical enrichment, and the next generation of large spectroscopic galaxy surveys is about to start. Discussion and activities undertaken at the meeting can thus seek to leverage this growing body of cutting edge data, while also defining the questions and methodologies to be explored with the next generation of spectroscopic galaxy surveys and gravitational-wave detectors.