From disrupting neutron stars to black hole entropy: results from the first ten years of gravitational-wave discovery

The first ten years of gravitational-wave astronomy have allowed us to use ripples in the fabric of space time to study merging black holes, neutron stars and neutron star---black hole binaries. In this Thesis, I use gravitational waves to explore open questions related to the physics of neutron star---black hole mergers and binary black hole mergers. I use tidally disrupting neutron stars to measure the mass and radius of neutron stars, connect gravitational waves to fast radio transients and understand extreme gamma-ray bursts originating from these mergers. I test the fundamental nature of gravity using binary black holes by performing precision tests of Einstein’s theory of general relativity and Hawking’s theory of black hole entropy.