PHYS 6397 - GRADUATE RESEARCH IN PHYSICS
COURSE INFORMATION SHEET
- COURSE:
- PHYS 6397 - Graduate Research in Physics -
Summer 2004
- Prerequisite: UTB Master in Physics
- Description: Exploring parameter space for
LISA Capture Sources via Monte-Carlo Simulations
- INSTRUCTOR:
- Manuela Campanelli
- Office: SETB 2.258
- Phone: 574-6656
- E-mail: manuela@phys.utb.edu
- TEACHING ASSISTANT:
- Leor Barack
- Office: SETB 2.258
- Phone: 574-6762
- E-mail: leor@phys.utb.edu
- STUDENT:
- Santiago Peña
- CLASSES:
- T,TH 1:30am-16:00pm. Room SETB 2.258
(Office Hrs by appointment).
- EXAMS:
- Final: December 9, 2003 (10:00am-12:30am).
- COURSE TOPICS:
- Grid applications in
gravitational wave data analysis (PART I): A UTB graduate student,
Santiago Pena, who is currently under Barack's and Campanelli's
supervision, has been working on gravitational wave data analysis of
signals from extreme mass-ratio inspirals, which are important potential
sources for the future space-based detector LISA (Laser Interferometer
Space Antenna), a NASA-ESA mission scheduled for launch around 2011.
LISA will detect GWs from a variety of sources. One of the important
sources will be inspirals of compact objects (white dwarfs, neutron
stars, or stellar-mass black holes) into Super-massive black holes
residing in the cores of galaxies. The parameter space for such
capture events is enormous. Each inspiral is characterized by 17
unknown parameters. Consequently, we will need a huge bank of
templates (perhaps ~10^50!) to dig GW signal out of the noise of the
LISA detector. Since parameter space is so huge one needs to use
Monte-Carlo methods, based on random sampling. This is most efficiently
done using some VDT software, like Condor, allowing to sample many
points in parameter space simultaneously.