Speaker
Description
This talk will explore how gravitational-wave interferometers can serve as powerful probes of new physics across vastly different mass scales. I will first show that data from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration can help resolve a long-standing puzzle: whether the GeV gamma-ray excess at the Galactic Center originates from annihilating weakly interacting massive particles or from a population of millisecond pulsars. Turning to lighter dark matter candidates, I will then demonstrate how the same gravitational-wave detectors enable the direct detection of ultralight bosons, including dark photons, axions, and dilatons. Together, these methods illustrate how gravitational wave experiments can be repurposed as powerful discovery tools for new physics.