Relativistic Astrophysics

索恩9417371理论研究将在广义相对论和天体物理学之间的界面上进行，研究天体物理物体产生引力波的问题。 一个小的额外努力将研究黑洞和中子星的非引力波方面。 引力波研究将集中在LIGO（激光干涉引力波天文台）可探测到的波上，以确定LIGO需要什么样的波生成计算。 特别值得关注的是由中子星或黑洞组成的双星系统在生命的最后10分钟内产生的波。 在这10分钟内，两个天体向内螺旋，产生大约10，000个波周期，携带有关天体轨道，质量和旋转的详细信息。 在最后的几毫秒里，两个天体剧烈地结合在一起，产生的波携带着中子星星情况下核物质状态方程的信息，以及黑洞情况下时空曲率的非线性动力学的信息。 由此产生的波形必须计算到高精度，作为分析LIGO数据的理论模板。 ***

Thorne 9417371 Theoretical research will be conducted at the interface between general relativity theory and astrophysics studying the generation of gravitational waves by astrophysical objects. A minor additional effort will study non-gravitational wave aspects of black holes and neutron stars. The gravitational-wave research will be focused on waves detectable by LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) to identify what wave-generation computations are needed for LIGO. Of special concern will be the waves produced in the last ~10 minutes of the life of a binary system made up from neutron stars or black holes. During these 10 minutes the two bodies spiral inward, producing approximately 10,000 wave cycles that carry detailed information about the bodies' orbit, masses, and spins. During the last few milliseconds the bodies violently coalesce, producing waves that carry information about the equation of state of nuclear matter in the neutron star case and about the nonlinear dynamics of space-time curvature in the black hole case. The resulting waveforms must be computed to high accuracy for use as theoretical templates in analyzing LIGO data. ***