Theoretical Studies in Gravitation and Astrophysics

引力和天体物理学的理论研究

• 批准号: 0345151
• 负责人: Stuart Shapiro
• 金额: $ 44.1万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-06-01 至 2008-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0345151&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Theoretical; Studies; Gravitation; Astrophysics

This reseach spans several problems involving general relativity, the generation of gravitational radiation, relativistic hydrodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, and stellar dynamics. A common thread uniting the different theoretical topics is the crucial role of gravitation, especially relativistic gravitation. Compact objects (e.g., black holes and neutron stars) provide the principal forum, and the dynamics of matter in a strong gravitational field is a major theme. Some of the topics under investigation include the inspiral and coalescence of binary neutron stars and black holes, the generation of gravitational waves from binaries and other promising astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation, gravitational collapse, the stability of rotating neutron stars and supermassive stars and the final fate of unstable stars, and the formation of supermassive black holes now observed in the cores of galaxies and quasars. Most of these topics represent long-standing, fundamental problems in theoretical physics requiring large-scale computation for solution. Hence the approach involves large-scale computations on parallel machines, as well as analytical modeling. Many of the numerical calculations employ the state-of-the-art computational resources of the UIUC's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). They comprise both initial value and evolution computations and treat vacuum spacetimes containing black holes as well as spacetimes containing realistic matter sources. The research bridges the fields of general relativity and astrophysics. The results have important implications for astronomical observations,including those planned for gravitational wave interferometers, such as LIGO and LISA.An appreciable portion of the effort is devoted to the education, training and support of postdoctoral students and a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) team at UIUC in computational astrophysics and relativity. These students collaborate with the PI on the majority of research. The training that each of the PI's students receives in large-scale computations and scientific visualization, as well as in several different areas of theoretical physics and astrophysics, prepares them to pursue professional careers in a broad range of scientific and technical fields. The computer algorithms and numerical codes that are being developed are useful to other groups working in computational physics and astrophysics. The research and outreach activities of the PI and his group help promote the use of computers and visualization tools at all levels of education, as well as the public awareness of some the latest and most exciting developments in gravitation physics and astrophysics.

这项研究涉及广义相对论、引力辐射的产生、相对论流体力学、磁流体力学和恒星动力学等几个问题。一个共同的线索连接不同的理论主题是至关重要的作用，引力，特别是相对论引力。压缩对象（例如，黑洞和中子星）提供了主要论坛，强引力场中的物质动力学是一个主要主题。正在研究的一些主题包括中子星和黑洞的螺旋和合并，从双星和其他有希望的天体物理引力辐射源产生引力波，引力坍缩，旋转中子星和超大质量恒星的稳定性和不稳定恒星的最终命运，以及现在在星系和类星体核心观察到的超大质量黑洞的形成。这些主题中的大多数代表了理论物理学中长期存在的基本问题，需要大规模计算来解决。因此，该方法涉及并行机上的大规模计算以及分析建模。许多数值计算采用了UIUC的国家超级计算应用中心（NCSA）的最先进的计算资源。它们包括初始值和演化计算，并处理包含黑洞的真空时空以及包含现实物质源的时空。 这项研究在广义相对论和天体物理学领域之间架起了一座桥梁。这些结果对天文观测具有重要意义，包括那些计划用于引力波干涉仪的观测，如LIGO和丽莎。相当大的一部分努力致力于教育，培训和支持博士后学生和UIUC计算天体物理学和相对论的本科生研究经验（REU）团队。 这些学生与PI合作进行大部分研究。PI的每个学生在大规模计算和科学可视化以及理论物理学和天体物理学的几个不同领域接受的培训，使他们能够在广泛的科学和技术领域从事职业生涯。正在开发的计算机算法和数字代码对从事计算物理学和天体物理学工作的其他小组很有用。PI及其团队的研究和推广活动有助于在各级教育中推广计算机和可视化工具的使用，以及公众对引力物理学和天体物理学最新和最令人兴奋的发展的认识。