Gravitational waves from black hole binaries: modeling, astrophysics and strong-field tests

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。 两个黑洞逐渐靠近并最终合并，释放出大量的引力波能量，是引力波观测站最有希望的来源之一，如LIGO和丽莎。引力波数据分析的主要挑战之一在于从嘈杂的探测器输出中提取此类二进制物体发射的信号。为了成功提取，需要信号的精确理论“模板”波形。该奖项支持的研究目标是提高合并黑洞引力波形的理论知识。 将综合使用以下技术：（1）在黑洞相距甚远的早期螺旋期间，爱因斯坦引力理论的“后牛顿”扩展，对牛顿理论的小修正提供了对系统的合理描述;（2）黑洞合并时爱因斯坦方程的数值解;（3）一种称为“黑洞微扰理论”的技术，当系统最终稳定下来，成为一个单一的旋转黑洞解时，将从天体物理学的角度和理论的角度研究黑洞碰撞。提高天体物理学黑洞双星理论波形的知识和探索可能的天体物理学意义是及时和相关的引力波搜索LIGO数据，在观测天体物理学中的应用，并在规划丽莎的根本重要性。以接近光速的速度对黑洞碰撞的研究是一项理论研究，它将揭示爱因斯坦在极端条件下引力理论的鲜为人知的细节，并将允许对合并中可以辐射的最大能量和光度进行定量估计，解决基础引力物理学中长期存在的问题。这项研究将为培养引力物理学研究生提供机会。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Two black holes gradually approaching each other and eventually merging to release a large amount of energy in gravitational waves are one of the most promising sources for gravitational wave observatories, such as LIGO and LISA. One of the main challenges in gravitational wave data analysis consists in extracting the signal emitted by such binaries from the noisy detector output. For the extraction to be successful, accurate theoretical "template" waveforms of the signal are needed. The goal of the research supported by this award is to improve theoretical knowledge of gravitational waveforms from merging black holes. A combination of techniques will be used: (1) a "post-Newtonian" expansion of Einstein's theory of gravity during the early inspiral, when the black holes are far apart and small corrections to Newtonian theory provide a reasonable description of the system; (2) a numerical solution of Einstein's equations when the black holes merge; (3) a technique known as "black hole perturbation theory" when the system finally settles down to a single rotating black hole solution.Black hole collisions will be studied both in the astrophysical context and from a theoretical point of view. Improving knowledge of theoretical waveforms from astrophysical black hole binaries and exploring possible astrophysical implications is timely and relevant for gravitational wave searches in LIGO data, has applications in observational astrophysics, and is of fundamental importance in the planning of LISA. The study of black hole collisions at speeds close to the speed of light is a theoretical investigation that will reveal poorly known details of Einstein's theory of gravity in extreme conditions and will allow a quantitative estimate of the maximum energy and luminosity that can be radiated in a merger, solving long-standing questions in fundamental gravitational physics. This research will provide the opportunity to train a graduate student in gravitational physics.