This award funds theoretical research in several different topics in relativistic astrophysics and general relativity, with a focus on tests of general relativity and on sources of gravitational radiation that might be detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) and by future space based detectors. Theoretical studies of sources of gravitational waves funded by this award will be useful to aid detection of signals from black holes and other sources, and also to aid in their interpretation. Gravitational wave studies can tell us about the nature of gravity, properties of black holes, and properties of the early Universe.
In more detail, this principal research topics of this award are: (i) The development of methods to compute the gravitational waveforms from point particles inspiralling into spinning black holes, using a combination of analytical and numerical approaches; (ii) The computation of the effects of radiation reaction on the gravitational wave signals from cosmic strings, which may have been produced in the early Universe; and (iii) The exploration of an explanation of angular momentum ambiguity in general relativity in terms of the gravitational wave memory effect, using approximation methods that have been developed for asymptotically flat spacetimes.
