The structure of the eight-dimensional parameter space for gravitational waves produced by binary black hole mergers is largely unknown. For each parameter value, each solution is found from numerically solving Einstein's equations and involves time intensive large-scale simulations. Hence, it is prohibitively expensive to explore the parameter space with traditional methods, which ultimately limits progress in gravitational waves physics and presents an important scientific challenge for the experimental program at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). In this project, new reduced-order modeling techniques will be developed for accurately representing solutions of parameterized problems that are expensive to solve for numerically, specifically in the context of gravitational waves from black hole binary mergers.
The results of this research project will enable the scientific community to make significant progress in the ability to map the continuum of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescence for gravitational wave detection purposes. It is expected the methods developed in this proposal will be useful for a broad range of other disciplines involving parameterized problems and expensive large-scale numerical solutions. The project involves significant contributions from two post-doctoral fellows, whose future careers will benefit from performing creative research at the forefront of an important scientific investigation.
