WoU-MMA: Compact Object Mergers in the Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

引力波天文学的时代始于几年前，LIGO和处女座的合作首次直接探测到引力波。这些探测和随之而来的理解源于对预期引力波形的详细了解，而数值演化是这方面的关键因素。该项目研究了最近升级的LIGO探测器的一个主要引力波来源，即中子星的合并和激发。双星中子星的合并也对传统望远镜敏感的并发电磁信号负责，即所谓的多信使天文学。将进行模拟以研究对引力信号和电磁信号的预期，并将详细研究此类合并的各个方面。例如，中子星内部的相变可能会影响合并期间的预期信号。使用分段多面体对有相变和无相变的状态方程进行建模，演化将揭示可能的差异。其他有待研究的效应包括磁不稳定性和轴子云的多尺度近似。事实证明，这些研究不仅对引力波数据分析界有帮助，而且对天文学界也有帮助。这里描述的活动将有助于进一步的本科生、研究生和博士后研究和STEM培训，包括一些代表性不足的个人(延续现有的此类指导记录)。此外，这项工作建立在开源基础设施和其他开源工具的基础上，因此它有助于支持广泛有用的、公开发布的软件。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The era of gravitational wave astronomy began a few years ago with the first direct detections by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration. These detections and the accompanying understanding result from detailed knowledge of expected gravitational waveforms, and numerical evolutions are a critical ingredient in this regard. This project studies a primary source of gravitational waves for the recently upgraded LIGO detectors, namely the merger and inspiral of neutron stars. The merger of binary neutron stars is also responsible for concurrent electromagnetic signals to which conventional telescopes are sensitive, so called multi-messenger astronomy. Simulations will be carried out to study both expectations for gravitational and electromagnetic signals.Various aspects of such mergers will be studied in detail. For example, phase transitions within the neutron stars may affect expected signals during the merger. Using a piecewise-polytrope to model the equation of state with and without a phase transition, evolutions will reveal possible differences. Other effects to be studied include multiscale approximations of magnetic instabilities and axion clouds. These studies will prove helpful not only to the gravitational wave data analysis community but to the astronomical community as well. The activities described here will help further undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral research and STEM training, including a number of underrepresented individuals (continuing an existing record of such mentoring). Also, this work builds on open-source infrastructure and other open-source tools, and thus it helps support broadly useful, publicly released, software.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.