Studies in Gravitational Waves and Neutron Star Ocean Waves

在LIGO和处女座可能看到的几个引力波来源中，最有希望的候选者似乎是紧密双星中的中子星或黑洞的合并。对于这些探测器的所谓“高级”版本，合并的预期事故率约为102/年。自然，人们会想要从这些探测中收集尽可能多的天文信息：人们会想要确定双星的角位置和距离，无论这些天体是中子星还是黑洞，两个天体的质量，等等。卡特勒教授将启动一项研究计划，以确定LIGO/处女座能够多精确地测量这些量。在从引力波信号中提取这种信息时，有两种误差：由于探测器噪声引起的测量误差，以及由于相对论者对给定的一组二元参数精确计算感应波形的能力的限制而引起的理论误差。卡特勒正在研究这两种错误，使用蒙特卡罗和分析技术的混合。由于许多有趣的信息被编码在波形的后牛顿小片段中，这一事实使分析变得困难。上述研究的主要动机有三个。首先，它为实验者提供了指导，告诉他们探测器设计中的哪些元素对进行天文学最关键。其次，它为理论家提供了一个指南，告诉他们在解决两体问题时必须“争取”的精确度。第三，这些结果使人们能够判断双星凝聚的潜在天文应用的可行性，例如将它们用作标准蜡烛来确定哈勃常数。

Of the several gravitational wave sources that could potentially be seen by LIGO and VIRGO, the most promising candidate appears to be mergers of neutron stars or black holes in tight binaries. For the so-called `Advanced' versions of these detectors, anticipated event rates from mergers are ~102/yr. Naturally, one will want to glean as much astronomical information as possible from these detections: one will want to determine the angular position and distance to the binary, whether the bodies are neutron stars or black holes, the masses of the two bodies, et cetera. Prof. Cutler will initiate a program of research to determine how accurately LIGO/VIRGO can measure these quantities. In extracting this information from the gravitational wave signal, there are two kinds of errors: measurement errors due to detector noise, and theoretical errors due to limitations on the ability of relativists to accurately calculate the inspiral waveform for a given set of binary parameters. Cutler is investigating both kinds of error, using a mixture of Monte Carlo and analytic techniques. The analysis is made difficult by the fact that much of the interesting information is encoded in small, post-Newtonian pieces of the waveform. There are three principal motivations for the above research. First, it provides guidance to experimentalists as to which elements of the detector design are most crucial for doing astronomy. Second, it provides theorists a guide to the level of accuracy they must `shoot for' in solving the two-body problem. Third, the results allow one to judge the feasibility of potential astronomical applications of binary coalescences, such as using them as standard candles to determine the Hubble constant.