The Extreme Gravity Dynamics and Gravitational Waves of Generic Compact Binary Inspirals

随着获得诺贝尔奖的先进的LIGO和先进的处女座地面天文台首次探测到引力波，引力波天体物理学已经进入了一个发现和探索的新时代。LIGO和Virgo的主要任务之一是在爱因斯坦的广义相对论从未被测试过的地方测试它：在引力巨大且剧烈变化的地方。引力波编码了关于这种极端重力状态的宝贵信息，特别是在黑洞和中子星碰撞时产生的波中。该奖项的主要目标是开发现成的模型，以提取和解释在偏心和进动碰撞中发射的引力波，以便这些模型可以用于研究天体物理学，并通过未来的观测来检验广义相对论。这项研究将与更广泛的影响活动相结合，旨在通过蒙大拿州立大学极端重力研究所开展的活动，改变K-12学生和公众对物理和科学的态度，该研究所是培养下一代科学家的沃土。该项目旨在(i)为一般致密双星（具有任意自旋和偏心的黑洞和中子星双星）的轨道动力学和引力波的后期激发建立可分析的现成模型，以及（ii）利用这些模型分析和解释当前和未来的地面引力波数据，以研究天体物理学和实验相对论的含义。目前使用的引力波模型仅限于（最多接近）准圆形吸气（通常）自旋与轨道角动量对齐/反对齐（或简单的类似进动的近似）。这些模型对于当前GW观测的探测和表征已经足够了，但随着先进的LIGO升级到设计灵敏度和第三代探测器的构建，将需要更精确的模型。这些模型不仅可以防止由于系统建模错误而导致的参数估计偏差，而且它们编码的附加信息将允许更准确的参数估计和从数据中提取新信息。这些新的信息，如轨道偏心率和自旋矢量分量，可以为天体物理人口模型提供信息，并允许在大多数未被探索的极端重力状态下对广义相对论进行新的测试。拟议的研究包括在数据分析研究中实施现成的模型，以确定可以从当前和未来引力波数据中提取的天体物理学和实验相对论信息。这项研究将与更广泛的影响活动相结合，旨在改变K-12学生和公众对物理和科学的态度。“物理的艺术”活动是密歇根州立大学物理系的一项艺术竞赛和驻留项目，在该项目中，本科生将接受前沿物理学的教育，并创作传达其概念的艺术作品。这些艺术作品将在一个评审展览上竞争，获胜的艺术家将成为明年的常驻物理学艺术家。“学会失败”活动是一个艺术装置，在这个活动中，蒙大拿州立大学的教师将在镜头前与密歇根州立大学的学生和公众分享他们的失败故事，同时对比他们最大的成就。通过对失败与成功的对比，该装置将引发一场关于失败在学术界的作用和意义的诚实对话。《中学极限重力？》是针对中学教师的完整的、符合标准的课程计划，旨在帮助他们学习如何向中学生讲授有关引力透镜、中子星、黑洞和引力波等主题的内容。其他活动包括为当地轮滑德比队举办的黑洞主题比赛，PI的公开演讲，以及为当地学校的中学生提供持续的STEM指导。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。

Gravitational wave astrophysics has entered a new era of discovery and exploration, with the Nobel-Prize-earning, first detections of gravitational waves by the advanced LIGO and advanced Virgo ground-based observatories. One of the key missions of LIGO and Virgo is to test Einstein's theory of General Relativity where it has never been tested before: where the gravitational force is enormous and violently changing. Gravitational waves encode invaluable information about this extreme gravity regime, especially in the waves produced when black holes and neutron stars collide. The main objective of this award is to develop ready-to-use models to extract and interpret gravitational waves emitted in eccentric and precessing collisions, so that these models can be used to study astrophysics and test General Relativity with future observations. This research will be integrated with broader impact activities aimed at changing the attitudes of K-12 students and the general public toward physics and science through activities that will be developed in the eXtreme Gravity Institute at Montana State University, a fertile training ground for the next generation of scientists. This project is aimed at (i) the development of analytic, ready-to-use models for the orbital dynamics and gravitational waves emitted in the late inspiral of generic compact binaries (black hole and neutron star binaries with arbitrary spin and eccentricity), and (ii) the use of these models to analyze and interpret current and future ground-based gravitational wave data to study astrophysics and experimental relativity implications. The gravitational wave models used currently are restricted to (at most nearly) quasi-circular inspirals with (typically) spins aligned/anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum (or to simple-precession-like approximations). Such models are sufficient for the detection and characterization of current GW observations, but as advanced LIGO is upgraded to reach design sensitivity and third-generation detectors are constructed, more accurate models will be needed. Not only will these models prevent the biasing of parameter estimation due to mis-modeling systematics, but the additional information they encode will allow for more accurate parameter estimation and the extraction of new information from the data. This new information, such as the orbital eccentricity and the spin vector components, can inform astrophysical population models, as well as allow for new tests of General Relativity in the mostly-unexplored, extreme gravity regime. The proposed research includes the implementation of the ready-to-use models in data analysis studies to determine the astrophysics and experimental-relativity information that can be extracted from current and future gravitational wave data. This research will be integrated with broader impact activities aimed at changing the attitudes of K-12 students and the general public toward physics and science. "The Art of Physics" activity is an art competition and residency program in the Department of Physics at MSU, in which undergraduate students will be educated in cutting-edge physics and create art works that convey its concepts. The art pieces will compete at a juried exhibition, with the winning artist becoming the resident artist in physics for the next year. The "Learn to Fail" activity is an art installation in which Montana State University faculty will share their failure stories with the MSU student population and general public on camera while contrasting their biggest achievements. Through this juxtaposition between failures and successes, the installation will generate an honest dialogue about the role and meaning of failure in academia. "eXtreme Gravity for Middle School? are fully-formed, standards-aligned lesson plans for middle school teachers aimed at supporting them in learning how to deliver content on topics including gravitational lensing, neutron stars, black holes and gravitational waves to middle school students. Other activities include a black-hole themed bout for the local roller derby team, public talks given by the PI, and continued STEM mentoring for middle-school students from local schools.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.