Monday

White dwarf stars are a well-established tool for studying Galactic stellar populations. Two white dwarfs in a tight orbit forming a double white dwarf (DWD) binary offer us an additional messenger - gravitational waves - for exploring the Milky Way and its immediate surroundings. Gravitational waves emitted by DWDs can be detected by the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). While awaiting the LISA’s launch, DWDs can be discovered as faint electromagnetic transients in wide-field sky optical surveys.
I will discuss what we will learn about our Galaxy from the multi-messenger sample of DWDs. In particular, I will demonstrate how well the density distribution of DWDs constrains scale parameters of the Milky Way's bulge, disc and central bar. I will highlight how the power to constrain the overall properties of the Galactic baryonic potential will be significantly enhanced by using gravitational waves in combination with electromagnetic observations. Finally, I will show that massive Galactic satellites can be seen on gravitational wave sky and I will present which of their properties we will be able to investigate with LISA.