Kyriakos Destounis, TAT-IAAT  - June 13th, 2022

The historic detection of gravitational waves paved the way for precision gravitational-wave astrophysics to blossom at unprecedented proportions. The sensitivity increment of ground-based interferometers, as well as the arrival of next generation space-borne detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), will unequivocally strengthen our understanding of the gravitational interaction in extreme conditions. In this talk, I will focus on one of the prime targets of LISA, the so-called extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs). EMRIs are binaries that consist of a primary supermassive compact object, such as the black holes lurking in galactic cores, and a stellar-mass secondary companion. I will discuss their rich waveform phenomenology as well as potential observables of fascinating phenomena which are imprinted on the gravitational waves of EMRIs and may be detected with LISA.