Theoretical Studies in Gravitation and Astrophysics

引力和天体物理学的理论研究

• 批准号: 0345151
• 负责人: Stuart Shapiro
• 金额: $ 44.1万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-06-01 至 2008-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0345151&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Theoretical; Studies; Gravitation; Astrophysics

This reseach spans several problems involving general relativity, the generation of gravitational radiation, relativistic hydrodynamics, magnetohydrodynamics, and stellar dynamics. A common thread uniting the different theoretical topics is the crucial role of gravitation, especially relativistic gravitation. Compact objects (e.g., black holes and neutron stars) provide the principal forum, and the dynamics of matter in a strong gravitational field is a major theme. Some of the topics under investigation include the inspiral and coalescence of binary neutron stars and black holes, the generation of gravitational waves from binaries and other promising astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation, gravitational collapse, the stability of rotating neutron stars and supermassive stars and the final fate of unstable stars, and the formation of supermassive black holes now observed in the cores of galaxies and quasars. Most of these topics represent long-standing, fundamental problems in theoretical physics requiring large-scale computation for solution. Hence the approach involves large-scale computations on parallel machines, as well as analytical modeling. Many of the numerical calculations employ the state-of-the-art computational resources of the UIUC's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). They comprise both initial value and evolution computations and treat vacuum spacetimes containing black holes as well as spacetimes containing realistic matter sources. The research bridges the fields of general relativity and astrophysics. The results have important implications for astronomical observations,including those planned for gravitational wave interferometers, such as LIGO and LISA.An appreciable portion of the effort is devoted to the education, training and support of postdoctoral students and a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) team at UIUC in computational astrophysics and relativity. These students collaborate with the PI on the majority of research. The training that each of the PI's students receives in large-scale computations and scientific visualization, as well as in several different areas of theoretical physics and astrophysics, prepares them to pursue professional careers in a broad range of scientific and technical fields. The computer algorithms and numerical codes that are being developed are useful to other groups working in computational physics and astrophysics. The research and outreach activities of the PI and his group help promote the use of computers and visualization tools at all levels of education, as well as the public awareness of some the latest and most exciting developments in gravitation physics and astrophysics.

这一研究涵盖了几个涉及一般相对论，引力辐射的产生，相对论流体动力学，磁性水力学和恒星动力学的问题。结合不同理论主题的一个共同线程是引力的关键作用，尤其是相对论重力。紧凑的物体（例如，黑洞和中子星）提供了主要论坛，在强烈的引力领域中物质的动态是一个主要主题。 Some of the topics under investigation include the inspiral and coalescence of binary neutron stars and black holes, the generation of gravitational waves from binaries and other promising astrophysical sources of gravitational radiation, gravitational collapse, the stability of rotating neutron stars and supermassive stars and the final fate of unstable stars, and the formation of supermassive black holes now observed in the cores of galaxies and quasars.这些主题中的大多数代表了理论物理学中长期存在的基本问题，需要大规模计算解决方案。因此，该方法涉及对并行机器以及分析建模的大规模计算。许多数值计算采用了UIUC国家超级计算应用中心（NCSA）的最新计算资源。它们包括初始价值和进化计算，并处理包含黑洞的真空空间以及含有现实的物质来源的空间。 该研究桥接了一般相对论和天体物理学领域。结果对天文学观察具有重要意义，包括计划进行重力波干涉仪的观察，例如Ligo和Lisa。这项工作的明显部分致力于对博士后学生的教育，培训和支持，以及在计算机天文学和相关性UIUC的本科生（REU）团队的研究经验。 这些学生就大多数研究与PI合作。每个PI的学生都在大规模计算和科学可视化以及理论物理和天体物理学的几个不同领域接受的培训准备在广泛的科学和技术领域从事专业职业。正在开发的计算机算法和数值代码对在计算物理和天体物理学中工作的其他群体有用。 PI及其小组的研究和外展活动有助于促进各种教育的计算机和可视化工具的使用，以及公众对重力物理学和天体物理学中一些最新和最令人兴奋的发展的认识。