Physics and Astrophysics of Compact Binaries

该奖项支持相对论和相对论天体物理学的研究，并阐述了美国国家科学基金会“宇宙之窗”大构想的优先领域。该奖项支持对引力波观测的研究，以加深对引力和黑洞的了解。已投入大量财政资源在实验方面进行先进的检测器设计，并在社区努力在理论/数据分析方面建立紧凑的二元检测模板。LIGO和处女座的合作首次探测到引力波是一个重要的里程碑，但为了让引力波科学做出更多开创性的贡献，我们必须能够超越探测，从震源的强引力动力学中提取基础物理。随着LIGO/Virgo在下一次观测运行中体积覆盖率的预期增加，KAGRA在日本的运行，宇宙探索者地平线研究的完成，以及爱因斯坦望远镜被纳入2021年ESFRI路线图，这项工作是及时的，旨在扩大地面干涉仪的科学范围。该项目将在一个高度跨学科的领域培训学生，该领域需要广义相对论、天体物理学、数据分析和高能物理方面的专业知识。学生们将受益于与一个由世界领先的引力物理专家组成的大型国际网络的互动。该奖项支持的项目紧密交织在一起，但为了方便起见，它们可以分为两个主要研究领域：(1)“黑洞光谱”，即试图从广义相对论预测的黑洞的振荡频率中识别合并残余物的研究计划；以及(2)改善引力波天文学中的系统效应。第一组项目研究多个振荡模的可探测性、其频率的可测性、建立更好的振荡模振幅模型以及准正规模谱中的不稳定性。第二组研究了系统学如何影响广义相对论中的单粒子参数估计，导致对广义相对论以外的影响的错误“检测”，并限制了我们测试广义相对论和观察引力透镜的能力。PI的小组将在单事件和总体水平上研究系统学对参数估计、广义相对论检验和透镜效应检测的影响。当我们进入第三代干涉仪的大数据制度时，所获得的知识将用于设计自我纠正策略，以改善系统学的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已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。

This award supports research in relativity and relativistic astrophysics, and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. This award supports studies of gravitational wave observations to gain a deeper understanding of gravity and black holes. Large financial resources have been invested in advanced detector design on the experimental side, and in a community effort to build compact binary detection templates on the theoretical/data analysis side. The first gravitational-wave detections by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration were a major milestone, 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. With the expected increase in volume coverage of LIGO/Virgo in the next observing runs, the operation of KAGRA in Japan, the completion of the Cosmic Explorer Horizon Study, and the inclusion of the Einstein Telescope in the 2021 ESFRI Roadmap, this work is timely, geared at enhancing the science scope of ground-based interferometers. The project will train students in a highly interdisciplinary field that requires expertise in general relativity, astrophysics, data analysis and high-energy physics. The students will benefit from interactions with a large international network of world-leading experts in gravitational physics.The projects supported by this award are strongly intertwined, but for convenience they can be grouped in two main research areas: (1) "black hole spectroscopy", i.e. the research program trying to identify merger remnants as the black holes predicted by general relativity from their oscillation frequencies; and (2) ameliorating systematic effects in gravitational-wave astronomy. The first set of projects investigates the detectability of multiple ringdown modes, the measurability of their frequencies, the construction of better models for the ringdown mode amplitudes, and instabilities in quasinormal mode spectra. The second set studies how systematics could affect single-event parameter estimation within general relativity, lead to false “detections” of effects beyond general relativity, and limit our ability to test general relativity and observe gravitational lensing. The PI's group will study the effect of systematics on parameter estimation, tests of general relativity and detection of lensing effects, at both the single-event and population levels. The knowledge gained will be used to devise self-correcting strategies to ameliorate the effect of systematics as we enter the Big Data regime of third-generation interferometers.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.