Gravitational waves: The future of black hole physics

The new millennium will witness the operation of several long-baseline grou nd-based interferometric detectors, possibly a space-based detector too, wh ich will make it possible to directly observe black holes by catching gravi tational waves emitted by them during their formation or when they are pert urbed or when a binary consisting of black holes in-spirals due to radiatio n reaction. Such observations will help us not only to test some of the fun damental predictions of Einstein's general relativity but will also give us the unique opportunity to map black hole spacetimes, to measure the masses and spins of black holes and their population, etc.