| NSF Org: |
PHY Division Of Physics |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | May 17, 2017 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 5, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1662211 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Pedro Marronetti
pmarrone@nsf.gov (703)292-7372 PHY Division Of Physics MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $423,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $423,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2018 = $141,000.00 FY 2019 = $141,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
506 S WRIGHT ST URBANA IL US 61801-3620 (217)333-2187 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
506 South Wright Street Urbana IL US 61801-3620 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Gravity Theory |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
The LIGO-VIRGO Scientific Collaboration recently reported the first two direct detections of gravitational wave (GW) signals and demonstrated that these events (named GW150914 and GW151226) were produced by the inspiral and coalescence of binary black holes. This breakthrough marks the beginning of the era of GW astronomy. They also provide the strongest evidence yet that Einstein's theory of general relativity (GR) is the correct theory of gravity and that binary and spinning black holes exist with the properties prescribed by GR. The research funded within this project spans several problems involving GR, the generation of GWs, relativistic hydrodynamics (fluid flow in strong gravitational fields and moving at the speed of light)) and relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (fluid flow in magnetic fields). A common thread uniting the different theoretical topics is the crucial role of gravitation, especially relativistic gravitation. Compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) provide the principal forum, and the dynamics of matter in a strong gravitational field is a major theme. Some of the topics for investigation include the inspiral and coalescence of compact binaries (binary black holes, binary neutron stars and binary black hole--neutron stars), the generation of GWs from compact binaries and other promising astrophysical sources and the electromagnetic signals that may accompany them (e.g., gamma-ray bursts), gravitational collapse, circumbinary disks around merging supermassive black holes in the cores of galaxies and quasars, and the profile and observable consequences of dark matter (the major form of matter in the universe and unlike normal atoms and their constituents) around supermassive black holes in galaxy cores, including the Milky Way. The results have important implications for astronomical observations, including those planned for GW interferometers, such as the Advanced LIGO/VIRGO network, GEO, KAGRA, the PTAs and LISA, and transient-event electromagnetic detectors, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).
Most of these topics represent long-standing, fundamental problems in theoretical physics requiring large-scale computation for solution. Hence the approach involves to a significant degree large-scale simulations on supercomputers, in addition to analytical modeling. The key tool will be our robust and well-tested Illinois general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) code. The simulations solve Einstein's field equations of GR for gravity coupled to the equations of relativistic MHD for the fluid and Maxwell's equations for the electromagnetic fields. These equations constitute highly nonlinear, coupled partial differential equations in 3+1 dimensions that we solve by finite-differencing. The Illinois GRMHD code employs the BSSN technique with moving puncture gauge conditions to solve the field equations and a high-resolution, shock capturing scheme for the MHD. The problems to be tackled comprise both initial value and evolution computations and treat vacuum spacetimes containing black holes, as well as spacetimes containing realistic matter sources, magnetic fields and both electromagnetic and neutrino radiation ("multimessenger astronomy").
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The LIGO/Virgo Scientific Collaboration has compiled an impressive list of detected gravitational wave (GW) events consisting of several dozen binary black hole (BHBH) mergers, a couple of binary neutron star (NSNS) mergers and several likely black hole--neutron star (BHNS) mergers. These detections mark the beginning of the era of GW astronomy. This research project spanned several problems involving general relativity (GR), the generation of GWs, relativistic hydrodynamics, and relativistic magnetohydrodynamics. A common thread uniting the different theoretical topics was the crucial role of gravitation, especially relativistic gravitation. Compact objects (black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs) provided the principal forum, and the dynamics of matter in a strong gravitational field was a major theme. Some of the topics for investigation included the inspiral and coalescence of compact binaries (BHBHs, NSNSs and BHNSs); the generation of GWs from merging binaries and other promising astrophysical sources, and their counterpart electromagnetic (EM) signals; gravitational collapse; the stability of rotating, relativistic stars and the evolution and final fate of unstable stars; gamma-ray burst sources (GRBs); the formation and growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) from the magnetorotational collapse of supermassive stars (SMSs) and other scenarios; circumbinary disks around merging binary SMBHs in the cores of galaxies and quasars; and the profiles and observable signatures of dark matter (DM) around SMBHs in galaxy cores, including the Milky Way; and the dynamical evolution of clusters containing DM, stars and SMBHs. The results have important implications for astronomical observations, including those collected by and/or planned for GW interferometers, such as LIGO/Virgo, aLIGO+, KAGRA, GEO, the PTAs, the EINSTEIN TELESCOPE, LIGO VOYAGER, COSMIC EXPLORER, DECIGO, LISA, and the BBO.
Most of these topics represent long-standing,fundamental problems in theoretical physics requiring large-scale computation for solution. Hence the approach involved to a significant degree large-scale simulations on supercomputers, in addition to analytical modeling. The key tool was our robust and well-tested Illinois general relativistic, magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) code. The simulations solved Einstein's field equations of GR for gravity coupled to the equations of relativistic MHD for the fluid and Maxwell's equations for the EM fields. These equations constitute highly nonlinear, coupled partial differential equations in 3+1 dimensions that we solved by finite-differencing. The Illinois GRMHD code employs the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) technique with moving puncture gauge conditions and adaptive moving mesh refinement to solve the field equations and a high-resolution, shock capturing scheme for the MHD. The problems tackled comprised both initial value and evolution computations and treated vacuum spacetimes containing black holes, as well as spacetimes containing realistic matter sources, magnetic fields and both EM and neutrino radiation ("multimessenger astronomy"). The research and outreach activities supported by this grant helped promotethe use of computers and visualization tools at all levels of education, as well as the public awareness of some the latest and most exciting developments in gravitational physics and astrophysics.
Last Modified: 09/02/2021
Modified by: Stuart L Shapiro
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