Ulrich Sperhake and Seppe Staelens: Boson stars

Welcome to the latest episode of Maths on the Move! In this episode we spoke to Cambridge Professor of Theoretical Physics Ulrich Sperhake and his graduate student, Seppe Staelens, about boson stars: hypothetical objects that might be masquerading as black holes.

Our conversation with Ulrich and Seppe marked the tenth anniversary of the first detection of gravitational waves. As Ulrich explained back then, gravitational waves "opened our ears to the Universe in a waveband in which we have been 100% deaf up to now" and they also help us understand black holes and boson stars. In this podcast Seppe and Uli explain more, taking us to the frontiers of current research..

To find out more about the topics discussed in this podcast, you might like:

• A short explainer of gravitational waves
• Gravitational waves reveal cosmic hum: another podcast with Ulrich
• Dark stars: an article on gravitational waves and boson stars

Maths on the Move, is the podcast from plus.maths.org. We speak to researchers from the frontiers of mathematical science so you can connect with the maths that shapes and explains our world. Hosted by Plus editors Rachel Thomas and Marianne Freiberger.