Strong-Gravity Binary Phenomenology and Gravitational-Wave Astronomy

该奖项支持正在进行的关于广义相对论中双星系统动力学的研究，以及利用引力波观测进行的天文学研究。这项工作将进一步加深我们对双星系统中黑洞如何相互作用的理解，以及即将被LIGO等引力波探测器测量到的信号是如何产生的。作为这项工作的一部分，引力波信号被转换成声音（“声化”），以创建强大的工具来说明引力波对天文学的影响。将制作媒体内容来说明黑洞的形状是如何被轨道天体的潮汐场动态扭曲的。这不仅是作为动力学研究的一部分，而且也是为了向公众传播引力波源的科学。在这段时间内进行的具体项目包括使用黑洞摄动理论的研究，以及使用LIGO引力波探测器支持天文学的研究。黑洞摄动理论将与马里兰大学和德国的同事合作研究，以修订和扩展非常成功的“有效单体”（EOB）方法，以紧凑的二元动力学。到目前为止，这个项目的工作已经在阐明与黑洞视界的相互作用如何影响致密双星的演化方面做了很多工作。未来的工作将开始探测具有严重自旋轨道失调的轨道，为在更大的天体物理相关轨道上使用EOB框架奠定基础。黑洞摄动理论也将被用来尽可能精确地理解黑洞是如何被轨道体扭曲的，以及轨道频率之间的瞬间共振如何改变系统的演化。在引力波天文学领域，将研究中子星流体的不稳定性，以确定它们是否会显著影响LIGO及其姊妹仪器探测双星激励的能力。即使声称的效果被证明是不正确的，这将是一个有价值的练习，以评估将用于二元激励的技术有多强大。另一个项目将调查每个LIGO仪器的校准精度，以便准确地确定合并双星的天空位置。近年来，用望远镜寻找这些事件的对应体已经成为一个非常热门的话题；确保LIGO能够准确地告诉望远镜在哪里寻找，对于确保这些搜索取得成果至关重要。

This award supports ongoing research on the dynamics of binary systems in general relativity, and research on astronomy with gravitational wave observations. This work will further our understanding of how black holes in binary systems interact with one another, and how the signals that will soon be measured with gravitational-wave detectors like LIGO are generated. As part of this work, gravitational wave signals are converted to sound ("sonification") to create powerful tools for illustrating the impact of gravitational waves for astronomy. Media content will be produced to illustrate how black holes' shapes are dynamically distorted by the tidal field of an orbiting body. This is done not only as part of the dynamical studies but also for communicating the science of gravitational-wave sources to the general public.The specific projects pursued in this time frame are a mix of studies using black hole perturbation theory, and studies in support of astronomy with the LIGO gravitational wave detectors. Black hole perturbation theory will be studied in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Maryland and Germany to revise and extend the very successful "effective one body" (EOB) approach to compact binary dynamics. Work in this program so far has done much to clarify how interactions with a black hole's event horizon affect the evolution of compact binary. Future work will begin to probe orbits with substantial spin-orbit misalignment, laying the groundwork for using the EOB framework on a larger family of astrophysically relevant orbits. Black hole perturbation theory will also be used to understand as precisely as possible how a black hole is distorted by an orbiting body, and how momentary resonances between orbital frequencies can change the system's evolution. In the domain of gravitational wave astronomy, neutron star fluid instabilities will be studied to find out whether they can significantly affect the ability of LIGO and sister instruments to detect binary inspiral. Even if the claimed effect turns out to be incorrect, this will be a valuable exercise in assessing how robust are the techniques that will be used for binary inspiral. Another project will investigate how precisely the calibration of each LIGO instrument must be known in order to accurately pin down the sky position of coalescing binaries. Searching for counterparts to these events with telescopes has become an extremely hot topic in recent years; making sure that LIGO can accurately tell telescopes where to look is crucial for insuring that these searches are fruitful.