Black holes, gravitational waves, and machine-learning probes

Solutions to the Einstein equation describe phenomena ranging from black holes, to the cosmological evolution of the universe, to gravitational waves---all of which come together in gravitational-wave astronomy. In fact, general relativity encodes an even richer phenomenology, including turbulence and connections to nonlinear dynamics. I will describe how such behaviors emerge from holographically-motivated models, as well as advanced perturbation theory. As detections of gravitational waves become commonplace, efficient inference algorithms will be critical for comparing these predictions against data. I will present recent efforts to improve data analysis using new simulation-based inference algorithms with machine learning. Together, these new calculational and inference tools pave the way for the next era in gravitational-wave astronomy.