Research in Gravitation Theory and Relativistic Astrophysics

该奖项支持的研究在广泛的科学领域产生了影响，远远超出了引力天体物理学。对中子星物理的研究可能会导致更精确的测量中子星状态方程的方法，这可能对核物理学和相对论天体物理学产生重要影响。引力波搜索可能会导致首次探测到来自旋转中子星r模式的引力波。这样的观测可以提供大量关于这些恒星高密度核心中运行的基本微物理过程的新信息。这项工作也将发展新的方法来执行模拟爱因斯坦的方程与任意拓扑流形。除了基本的引力理论，这些方法还可能对宇宙学和纯数学产生影响。其中一些研究将涉及研究生，因此将有助于下一代引力天体物理学家的发展。这项资助的工作将发展更好的数学方法，利用对中子星的观测和我们对强引力场的理解来确定中子星状态方程，这种方法不需要任何关于中子星物质微物理学的假设。其他项目包括在公开的LIGO数据中搜索由旋转中子星的r模发射的引力波，以及在数值相对论方面的新研究，包括开发在具有任意空间拓扑的流形上求解爱因斯坦方程的技术。这些方法将用于研究各种各样的问题，包括努力探索流体系统中湍流级联的引力模拟，以及探索数值宇宙模型，以确定是否以及如何通过观测来识别非平凡拓扑。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The research supported by this award has impacts in a wide range of scientific areas that extend well beyond gravitational astrophysics. Studies on neutron-star physics could lead to more accurate methods of measuring the neutron-star equation of state, and this could have an important impact on nuclear physics in addition to relativistic astrophysics. The gravitational-wave searches could lead to the first detections of gravitational waves from the r-modes of rotating neutron stars. Such observations could provide a wealth of new information about the fundamental micro-physical processes operating in the high density cores of these stars. This work will also develop new methods for performing simulations of Einstein's equations on manifolds with arbitrary topologies. These methods could have impacts on cosmology and pure mathematics, in addition to fundamental gravitation theory. Some of this research will involve graduate students, and will therefore contribute to the development of the next generation of gravitational astrophysicists.The work supported by this grant will develop better mathematical methods for using observations of neutron stars and our understanding of strong gravitational fields to determine the neutron-star equation of state in a way that is free from any assumptions about the microphysics of neutron star matter. Other projects include searches in the publicly available LIGO data for gravitational waves emitted by the r-modes of rotating neutron stars and new research in numerical relativity that involves developing techniques for solving Einstein's equations on manifolds with arbitrary spatial topologies. These methods will be used to study a variety of problems, including an effort to explore the gravitational analog of the turbulent cascade seen in fluid systems and exploring cosmological models numerically to determine whether and how non-trivial topology could be recognized through observations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.