Last Modified: 2002 November 20
Charlie Torres / charlie@phys.utb.edu
The generation of gravitational waves is one of the more remarkable predictions of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
The strongest source of gravitational waves is a pair of massive compact objects (neutron stars or black holes) in orbit around one another. While no confirmed direct detections of gravitational waves have occurred, the indirect effects of this radiation have been observed in binary pulsar systems. Gravitational waves carry energy away from such a system, causing the orbits to evolve (inspiral) to change over time, and the observed rates of change (of the orbital period) are in excellent agreement with the predictions of general relativity.
In contrast with the binary pulsar systems just described, compact object binaries capable of producing waves strong enough to be detected with the upcoming generation of detectors will need to be in closer orbits, rendering the simple perturbative calculations used in the past inadequate. Efforts are currently underway using a variety of approximation schemes and direct supercomputer evolution, to obtain accurate spacetimes and waveforms for the inspiral of compact object binaries.
Other significant sources of gravitational radiation include periodic sources such as rotating asymmetric neutron stars, short-lived sources such as supernovæ and gamma-ray bursts, and cosmological sources sources arising in the early universe.
Two new faculty members, Manuela Campanelli and Carlos Lousto are involved in the Lazarus Project, which has had notable success applying a combination of approaches (post-Newtonian, full numerical, close limit) to the problem of black hole collisions.
Additionally, John Whelan is involved in a collaboration to approximate the slow inspiral of a compact object binary by a spacetime which is held in equilibrium a balance of incoming and outgoing gravitational radiation. [link to more information]
| Author | Title | Published | Preprint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baker, Campanelli & Lousto | The Lazarus project: A pragmatic approach to binary black hole evolutions | PRD 65, 044001 (2001) | gr-qc/0104063 |
| Baker, Brügmann, Campanelli, Lousto & Takahashi | Plunge waveforms from inspiralling binary black holes | PRL 87, 121103 (2001) | gr-qc/0102037 |
| Whelan, Beetle, Landry & Price | Radiation-Balanced Simulations for Binary Inspiral | Submitted to CQG | gr-qc/0110004 |
| Price & Whelan | Tidal interaction in binary black hole inspiral | To appear in PRL | gr-qc/0107029 |
| Whelan | A Stationary Approximation to the Spacetime of a Compact Object Binary |
ICTP Lec Notes
3,
157 (2001)
(also to appear in MG9 Proceedings) |
gr-qc/0011042 |
| Whelan, Krivan & Price | Quasi-stationary binary inspiral II: Radiation-balanced boundary conditions | CQG 17, 4895 (2000) | gr-qc/9909076 |
| Whelan & Romano | Quasi-stationary binary inspiral I: Einstein equations for the two Killing vector spacetime | PRD 60, 084009 (1999) | gr-qc/9812041 |
| Whelan | Quasi-Stationary Binary Inspiral: Project Overview | Texas 1998 Proceedings | gr-qc/9904010 |
| Detweiler | Periodic solutions of the Einstein equations for binary systems | PRD 50, 4929 (1994) | |
| Blackburn & Detweiler | Close black-hole binary systems | PRD 46, 2318 (1992) | |
| Geroch | A Method for Generating New Solutions of Einstein's Equation. II | PRD 13, 394 (1972) | |
| Geroch | A Method for Generating New Solutions of Einstein's Equations | JMP 12, 918 (1971) |