FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY
Grant: $200,000 - National Science Foundation - Jul. 31, 2009
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Award Description: This project continues the development of the numerical codes necessary to simulate the merger of two neutron stars or two black holes and the modeling of the gravitational waves generated by these phenomena. In particular, the work concentrates of the study of more realistic physics in the modeling of neutron stars, including the effects of neutrino radiation and the creation of initial data sets that will include neutron stars with arbitrary spins (in magnitude and orientation). Research on black hole mergers will continue, this time enhanced by a collaboration with th NINJA Group: a large (more than 80 investigators) international effort dedicated to ease the introduction of numerically generated gravitational waveforms into the data nalysis pipeline of LIGO and VIRGO. This work is particularly important in the light of the advent of the new generation of gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO. The possibility of detecting gravitational waves directly has created a new branch of astronomical sciences. Direct detection of these waves will provide unique insights into some of the most fascinating objects in the universe: black holes and neutron stars. Due to the matter that clouds the mergers of neutron stars with black holes or other neutron stars, gravitational waves and neutrino radiation are the only vehicles that can convey information about the last few moments of a binary system, the merger and the creation of a new object (most likely a black hole). Furthermore, this project supports a recently-fromed relativity group at a developing research institution, Florida Atlantic University with a culturally diverse student body.
Project Description: The researcher's activities during the summer consisted of the development of numerical codes to perform simulations of black holes and neutron stars. These codes are currently being developed and run on supercomputers such as Jaguar at the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Kraken at National Institute for Computational Sciences at the University of Tennessee.
Jobs Summary: Awarded funds were used to pay for half a month of Dr. Marronetti's (PI) summer salary and a month of Dr. Tichy's (Co-PI) summer salary. (Total jobs reported: 1)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on Jul. 31, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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