Compact Objects and Gravitational Radiation

阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦著名的广义相对论预言并解释了引力在我们宇宙中的作用。它最著名的两个预测是引力波和黑洞。引力波基本上是引力的信息载体，它以辐射的形式传播，黑洞是宇宙中最紧密的物体。2015年，NSF资助的LIGO观察到一个宇宙的行为与爱因斯坦的理论一致，至少在目前探测器的灵敏度下是这样。从那时起，从致密天体，即黑洞和中子星的融合中观察到了90个事件，在这些引力波观测的推动下，对宇宙的理解进入了一个新时代。为了实现他们的承诺，科学家必须确定引力波的来源，并提取关于该来源的信息，这需要求解爱因斯坦方程。该奖项致力于实现引力波的前景，利用数值相对论提供爱因斯坦对波形的理论预测。该奖项还支持教育和培训。研究人员将参加德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校物理系新开发的美国物理学会桥梁项目，并将继续利用探测到引力波所产生的兴奋，在YouTube网站Maya Collaboration上向所有人提供引力波事件的电影。该奖项支持两项与引力波解释有关的科学努力。首先是玛雅合作的二进制黑洞模拟库的继续，它将扩大到以日益灵敏的探测器所要求的精度覆盖源的物理参数。重点将放在涉及离奇和高度进动的双星的模拟上。这项工作还将涉及一系列新的中子星模拟--黑洞合并。在未来引力波探测器将带来改进的推动下，这两个目录中的工作将特别注意评估误差对参数估计的影响以及寻找优化游程布置的方法。第二种认识到，随着引力波探测器灵敏度的提高，它们将揭示更多奇异的信号。解释这些信号需要一种快速、可靠和稳健的参数估计算法，该算法可以与最先进的波形一起使用。利用数值相对论和引力波参数估计方面的内部专家团队，PI的团队将使用数值相对论模拟跟踪不寻常的引力波事件，调查新参数的可测量性，并评估波形模型和数值相对论误差产生的波形系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Albert Einstein's famous Theory of General Relativity predicts and explains the role of gravity in our universe. Two of its most famous predictions are gravitational waves, basically message carriers for gravity that travel as radiation, and black holes, the most compact objects in the universe. In 2015, the NSF-funded LIGO observed a universe that behaved consistent with Einstein's theory, at least at the current sensitivity of the detectors. Since then, 90 events have been observed from the coalescence of compact objects, namely black holes and neutron stars, and the understanding of the universe has entered a new era driven by these gravitational-wave observations. To realize their promise, scientists must identify the source of the gravitational wave and extract information about that source, which requires solutions to Einstein's equations. This award works toward realizing the promise of gravitational waves by using numerical relativity to provide Einstein's theoretical predictions of the waveforms. This award also supports education and training. The investigators will participate in a newly developed American Physical Society Bridge program at the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin and will continue to capitalize on the excitement generated by the detections of gravitational waves by providing movies of gravitational wave events made available to all on the YouTube site, Maya Collaboration.The award supports two scientific endeavors related to the interpretation of gravitational waves. First is the continuation of the Maya Collaboration's bank of binary black hole simulations, which will be expanded to cover the physical parameters of the sources at the accuracy required by increasingly sensitive detectors. The focus will be on simulations involving eccentric and highly precessing binaries. The effort will also involve a new catalog of simulations of neutron star -- black hole mergers. Motivated by the improvements that future gravitational wave detectors will bring, the work in both catalogues will pay particular attention to assessing the impact of errors on the parameter estimation as well as finding ways to optimize the placement of runs. The second recognizes that as the gravitational wave detectors increase in sensitivity, they will reveal more exotic signals. Interpreting these signals requires a fast, reliable, and robust parameter estimation algorithm that can be used with state-of-the-art waveforms. Using an in-house team of experts in numerical relativity and gravitational wave parameter estimation, the PI's team will follow-up unusual gravitational wave events with numerical relativity simulations, investigate the measurability of new parameters, and assess the waveform systematics resulting from waveform models and numerical relativity errors.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.