Exploring Aspects of Large Mass-Ratio Black Hole Binaries using Time-Domain Perturbation Theory

该奖项支持的研究将推动引力波天文学这一新兴学科背后的科学发展--美国通过NSF LIGO项目对该领域进行了大量投资，该项目最近首次直接探测到引力波，证实了爱因斯坦100年前的预测。这一研究领域取得了突破性进展，产生了重要的副产品技术，并引起了公众和青年对STEM学科的强烈关注。这个项目的重点是计算黑洞或中子星等合并物体发出的引力波。它包括正在研究的本科生，因此直接有助于学生在STEM领域的指导、培训和留住。学生发展的计算技能具有很高的可移植性，并为他们提供了各种职业选择，包括在国家需求巨大的领域。国际和平协会以前的研究项目已经在一般媒体上进行了讨论，因此这项工作在成功地向公众宣传方面具有很大的潜力。利用点粒子微扰理论建立了大质量比黑洞双星系统引力波发射的时间域模型。计划中的工作将大大推进这一方法，其目标不仅是对时间域模型的能力作出重大改进，而且还有助于各种科学应用。将对开发有效的一体模型和产生引力波形作出重大贡献，这最终将对当前和未来探测器(如LIGO和未来的空间飞行任务)的数据分析产生积极影响。此外，计划中的工作将使人们更好地理解由于引力波发射而导致的衰变双星系统中的俯冲相辐射和准正常振铃。

This award supports research that will advance the science behind the emerging discipline of gravitational wave astronomy -- an area which the US is deeply invested in through the NSF LIGO project that recently made the first ever direct detection of gravitational waves, confirming Einstein's 100 year old prediction. This research area has had breakthrough advances, generated significant spin-off technologies, and generated strong public and youth attention towards STEM disciplines. This project focuses on the calculation of gravitational waves emitted from merging objects such as black holes or neutron stars. It includes undergraduate students in research and therefore directly contributes to student mentorship, traineeship and retention in a STEM area. The computational skills that students develop are highly portable, and open them up to a variety of career options, including in areas of great national need. Previous research projects by the PI have been discussed in the general media, and thus this work has great potential at being successful for outreach to the general public. This proposal is about the development and application of a time-domain model for the gravitational wave emission from a large mass-ratio black hole binary system using point-particle perturbation theory. The planned work will significantly advance the approach with the goal of not only making major improvements to the capabilities of the time-domain model, but also contribute towards various scientific applications. Significant contributions will be made to the development of effective-one-body models and gravitational waveform generation, that will ultimately positively impact the data analysis of current and future detectors (such as LIGO and future space-borne missions). In addition, the planned work will bring about a better understanding of the plunge phase radiation and quasi-normal ringing in the context of decaying binary systems due to gravitational wave emission.