Gravitational waves from black hole binaries: modeling, astrophysics and strong-field tests

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。两个黑洞逐渐相互靠近，最终合并，以引力波的形式释放大量能量，这是LIGO和LISA等引力波天文台最有希望的来源之一。引力波数据分析的主要挑战之一是如何从有噪声的探测器输出中提取出这种双星发出的信号。为了成功地提取信号，需要精确的理论“模板”波形。该奖项支持的研究目标是提高对合并黑洞引力波的理论认识。将使用多种技术：(1)在早期灵感时期对爱因斯坦引力理论进行“后牛顿”扩展，此时黑洞相距很远，对牛顿理论的微小修正提供了对系统的合理描述；(2)黑洞合并时爱因斯坦方程的数值解；(3)当系统最终稳定为单一旋转黑洞解时，采用一种称为“黑洞摄动理论”的技术。黑洞碰撞将从天体物理学的角度和理论的角度进行研究。提高天体物理黑洞双星的理论波形知识，探索可能的天体物理意义，对LIGO数据中的引力波搜索具有及时和相关的意义，在观测天体物理学中具有应用价值，对LISA的规划具有重要意义。对接近光速的黑洞碰撞的研究是一项理论研究，它将揭示爱因斯坦在极端条件下的引力理论鲜为人知的细节，并将允许对合并中可以辐射的最大能量和光度进行定量估计，解决基础引力物理学中长期存在的问题。这项研究将提供机会来训练重力物理学的研究生。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Two black holes gradually approaching each other and eventually merging to release a large amount of energy in gravitational waves are one of the most promising sources for gravitational wave observatories, such as LIGO and LISA. One of the main challenges in gravitational wave data analysis consists in extracting the signal emitted by such binaries from the noisy detector output. For the extraction to be successful, accurate theoretical "template" waveforms of the signal are needed. The goal of the research supported by this award is to improve theoretical knowledge of gravitational waveforms from merging black holes. A combination of techniques will be used: (1) a "post-Newtonian" expansion of Einstein's theory of gravity during the early inspiral, when the black holes are far apart and small corrections to Newtonian theory provide a reasonable description of the system; (2) a numerical solution of Einstein's equations when the black holes merge; (3) a technique known as "black hole perturbation theory" when the system finally settles down to a single rotating black hole solution.Black hole collisions will be studied both in the astrophysical context and from a theoretical point of view. Improving knowledge of theoretical waveforms from astrophysical black hole binaries and exploring possible astrophysical implications is timely and relevant for gravitational wave searches in LIGO data, has applications in observational astrophysics, and is of fundamental importance in the planning of LISA. The study of black hole collisions at speeds close to the speed of light is a theoretical investigation that will reveal poorly known details of Einstein's theory of gravity in extreme conditions and will allow a quantitative estimate of the maximum energy and luminosity that can be radiated in a merger, solving long-standing questions in fundamental gravitational physics. This research will provide the opportunity to train a graduate student in gravitational physics.