RUI: Investigating Gravitational Waves and Extreme Mass-Ratio Compact Binaries

RUI：研究引力波和极端质量比致密双星

• 批准号: 2309020
• 负责人: Thomas Osburn
• 金额: $ 18.85万
• 依托单位: SUNY College at Geneseo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2309020&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Investigating; Gravitational; Waves; Extreme

This award supports theoretical investigations of the gravitational waves (GWs) emitted when a stellar mass compact object, such as a neutron star or black hole, inspirals into a supermassive black hole. These extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are important astronomical sources of GWs that will be observed by the upcoming Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) detector, which is under cooperative development by NASA and the European Space Agency. This project involves pursuit of a new approach to mathematical modeling that is able to achieve improved realism in a way that avoids technical hindrances encountered in prior work. Accurate EMRI models implemented through this award will enable LISA observations to reveal the inner workings of gravitational interactions like never before. This work involves direct training of quantitative technical skills for undergraduate student researchers, which are highly transferable to STEM related careers in other sectors. This award supports a synergistic physics education research project that will simultaneously improve upper-level undergraduate physics instruction and provide a testing ground to research new mathematical modeling techniques. The research objective of this award is to determine how relativistic two-body interactions influence the dynamics of EMRIs utilizing a new approach to self-force (SF) calculations recently discovered by the PI’s research group. Two-body interactions governing EMRIs are accurately dissected by applying black hole perturbation theory (BHPT) to expand the gravitational field and associated SF exerted on the secondary body up to an appropriate order in powers of the small mass-ratio. The new approach pursued by this project involves computation of Kerr metric perturbations by solving elliptic partial differential equations (PDEs), which avoids previously encountered numerical instabilities in Lorenz gauge self-force calculations. Those instabilities are avoided by entering the frequency domain, where the field equations involve only r and theta derivatives and are solved numerically. This project will research and implement the novel elliptic PDE SF method to calculate the 1st order Lorenz gauge Kerr gravitational SF, which opens a pathway to begin exploring the needed 2nd-order Kerr SF. Completion of this project will enhance fundamental understanding of gravitational physics and EMRI dynamics in ways that will assist GW data analysis and reveal the foundations of strong-field gravity with unprecedented precision.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.

该奖项支持重力波（GWS）的理论投资（GWS）发出的恒星质量紧凑的物体（例如中子星或黑洞）启发到超大型黑洞。这些极端的大规模比率灵感（EMRI）是GW的重要天文来源，即将到来的激光干涉仪太空天线（LISA）检测器将观察到，这是NASA和欧洲航天局的合作开发。该项目涉及追求一种新的数学建模方法，该方法能够以避免在先前工作中遇到的技术障碍的方式来实现改进的现实。通过该奖项实施的准确EMRI模型将使Lisa观察能够揭示引力相互作用的内部连接，从未有过。这项工作涉及对本科生研究人员进行定量技术技能的直接培训，这些技术技能高度转移到其他领域的STEM相关职业。该奖项支持一个协同的物理教育研究项目，该项目将简单地改善上层物理教学，并为研究新的数学建模技术提供测试场。该奖项的研究目标是确定相对论的两体相互作用如何利用PI研究小组最近发现的一种新方法来影响Emris的动态。通过应用黑洞扰动理论（BHPT），可以准确阐述控制EMRI的两体相互作用，以扩大在次级体内执行的重力场和相关的SF，直至在小质量比率的幂中，以适当的顺序。该项目追求的新方法涉及通过求解椭圆偏微分方程（PDE）来计算KERR度量扰动，该方程（PDES）避免了先前遇到的Lorenz仪表自力计算中遇到的数值不稳定性。通过进入频域，避免了这些不稳定性，在该频域中，场方程仅涉及R和Theta衍生物，并且基本上可以解决。该项目将研究并实施新型的椭圆PDE SF方法，以计算一阶Lorenz仪表Kerr重力SF，该方法开辟了开始探索所需的2阶Kerr SF的途径。该项目的完成将以有助于GW数据分析的方式增强对重力物理和EMRI动态的基本理解，并以前所未有的精度揭示强场重力的基础。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力功能和广泛影响的评估来评估CRETERIA的评估。