Physics and Astrophysics of Compact Binaries

该奖项的主要目标是利用引力波观测来更深入地了解重力和致密物体。它的长期目标是：(1)最大限度地从引力波观测中获得科学回报：我们可以从基本的引力物理学中学到什么？紧凑双星探测将如何有助于我们对宇宙的理解？(2)提高我们在广义相对论和修正的引力理论中对致密天体（无论是孤立的还是双星的）的理论认识。随着LIGO/Virgo的体积覆盖范围的预期增加和日本KAGRA的运行，这项工作是及时的，旨在提高地面干涉仪的物理和天体物理范围。该项目将在一个高度跨学科的领域培养一名学生，该领域需要在广义相对论、天体物理学、数据分析和高能物理学方面的专业知识。PI在巴尔的摩约翰霍普金斯大学（JHU）新成立的小组与美国和欧盟的小组有着长期的合作关系。这种合作网络将确保该项目资助的学生将在充满活力的国际环境中接受培训。该项目的一个关键目标是在新兴的引力波天文学领域的关键时刻，加强引力物理界与更大的物理学和天体物理学界之间的合作。JHU与太空望远镜科学研究所（STScI）和美国宇航局戈达德（GSFC）有正式的合作关系，它是许多世界领先的宇宙学和天体物理学专家的家，因此这项任务将极大地受益于小组与JHU教师和STScI天文学家的日常互动。PI在培养学生和博士后方面有着良好的记录，这些学生和博士后发展成为这些不同领域的主要专家。LIGO和Virgo合作的首次引力波探测是一个重要的里程碑。在探测器设计和紧凑的双星探测模板上投入了大量的财政资源，但要使引力波科学做出更突破性的贡献，我们必须能够超越探测，从源的强引力动力学中提取基本物理。PI将在广义相对论和一些有良好动机的修正引力理论中研究致密物体的结构和动力学。从这些研究中获得的理论见解将用于设计一个参数化的、理论不可知的引力波数据分析框架，以量化在强场状态下紧凑双星合并与广义相对论的动力学偏差。为了解决这个问题，PI的团队将采取以下策略：(1)确定最简单、最具动机的修正引力和物理理论，超越标准模型，产生不同于广义相对论的黑洞时空和/或双黑洞引力波形；(2)结合摄动理论和/或数值相对论计算相应的黑洞解和（只要可能）双星合并和环灭时发射的引力波；(3)利用这些结果学习如何以理论不可知的方式参数化与广义相对论的强场偏差，并在引力波数据分析中实现这些参数化。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。

The principal objective of this award is to exploit gravitational-wave observations to gain a deeper understanding of gravity and compact objects. Its long-term goals are: (1) to maximize the scientific payoff from gravitational-wave observations: what can we learn about fundamental gravitational physics, and how will compact binary detections contribute to our understanding of the Universe? (2) to improve our theoretical understanding of compact objects, whether isolated or in binaries, in general relativity and in modified theories of gravity. With the expected increase in volume coverage of LIGO/Virgo and the operation of KAGRA in Japan, this work is timely, geared at enhancing the scope of the physics and astrophysics enabled by ground-based interferometers. The project will train a student in a highly interdisciplinary field that requires expertise in general relativity, astrophysics, data analysis and high-energy physics. The PI's newly established group at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in Baltimore has long-standing collaborations with groups in the US and in the EU. This network of collaborations will ensure that the student funded by this project will be trained in a vibrant international environment. A key goal of the project is to strengthen collaborations between the gravitational physics community and the larger physics and astrophysics communities at a crucial time for the nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy. JHU has formal collaborations with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and NASA Goddard (GSFC) and it is home to many world-leading experts in cosmology and astrophysics, so this task will benefit enormously from the group's daily interactions with JHU faculty and STScI astronomers. The PI has a strong track record of training students and postdocs who developed into leading experts working at the interface of these different fields.The first gravitational-wave detections by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration were a major milestone. Large financial resources have been invested in detector design and in compact binary detection templates, but for gravitational-wave science to make even more groundbreaking contributions we must be able to go beyond detections, extracting fundamental physics from the strong-gravity dynamics of the sources. The PI will investigate the structure and dynamics of compact objects in general relativity and in some well-motivated modified theories of gravity. The theoretical insight gained from these investigations will be used to devise a parametrized, theory-agnostic gravitational-wave data analysis framework to quantify dynamical deviations from general relativity for compact binary mergers in the strong-field regime. To address this problem, the PI's group will adopt the following strategy: (1) identify the simplest, best-motivated modified theories of gravity and physics beyond the Standard Model that would produce black hole spacetimes and/or binary black hole gravitational waveforms that differ from general relativity; (2) compute the corresponding black hole solutions and (whenever possible) the gravitational waves emitted during binary merger and ringdown using a combination of perturbation theory and/or numerical relativity; (3) use these results to learn lessons on how to parametrize strong-field deviations from general relativity in a theory-agnostic way, and implement these parametrizations in gravitational-wave data analysis.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.