Gravitational Waves and the Physics of Strong Gravitational Fields

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Research will be conducted to develop, to implement and to test data-analysis algorithms to search for gravitational-wave signals in data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The effort will focus on: (i) the development of search and discrimination techniques in computationally expensive searches for sources of continuous gravitational waves, (ii) the exploration of analysis techniques which utilize data from multiple detectors, (iii) the development of techniques to detect gravitational wave signals from unmodelled burst sources, and (iv) the extraction of astrophysical information from the data. The ultimate goal of LIGO is the routine observation of gravitational waves from astrophysical sources; it is extremely important to develop robust techniques and algorithms to extract (from the data stream) the wealth of information that is carried by the gravitational wave signals. Theoretical tools will be developed to study the physics of strong gravitational fields. The effort will focus on the development of approximate methods to study gravitational-wave generation by inspiralling binary neutron stars and/or black holes in regimes which are not amenable to current techniques. Accurate theoretical models are needed to optimally utilize the data from the gravitational waves detectors. Efforts to understand the dynamics of gravitational collapse and black-hole formation will also continue; Brady's group will use numerical methods to study the dynamical collapse of perfect fluids and singularities inside spinning black holes.