ASTR 688A, Discussion Course on Gravitational Radiation

Spring 2004

A weekly discussion of papers on gravitational radiation and its sources. Meetings are 7-8 PM on Mondays, in the new conference room CSS 1248. The first discussion will be on February 2, the second Monday of the semester. In each meeting, a volunteer or someone picked randomly will lead the discussion. Students who take this for credit will be graded P/F, based only on attendance and reasonable participation (no homework or exams).

The following is a suggested list of papers. Substitutions can be made if requested.

Basics of gravitational waves

February 2. Overview: "Gravitational-wave sources", B. F. Schutz 1996, Class. Quantum Grav. 13, A219
February 9. Information from inspirals: "Gravitational waves from extreme mass ratio inspirals: challenges in mapping the spacetime of massive, compact objects", S. A. Hughes 2001, Class. Quantum Grav. 18, 4067

Sources: neutron stars

February 16. Double neutron star systems: "A Double-Pulsar System - A Rare Laboratory for Relativistic Gravity and Plasma Physics", A. G. Lyne et al. 2003, astro-ph/0401086
More info on NS-NS statistics: "The Probability Distribution of Binary Pulsar Coalescence Rates. I. Double Neutron Star Systems in the Galactic Field", Kim et al. 2003, ApJ, 584, 985
February 23. Solitary neutron stars: "Neutron Star Pulsations and Instabilities", Lee Lindblom 2001, astro-ph/0101136
For the original paper on neutron star r-mode instabilities: "A New Class of Unstable Modes of Rotating Relativistic Stars", N. Andersson 1998 ApJ, 502, 708

Detectors

March 1. Bar detectors: "Resonant-mass detectors of gravitational waves in the short- and medium-term future", E. Coccia 2003, Class. Quantum Grav. 20, S135
March 8. Time-delay interferometry: "Cancellation of laser noise in an unequal-arm interferometer detector of gravitational radiation", M. Tinto and J. W. Armstrong 1999, Phys. Rev. D 59, 102003
For many more details on laser interferometry: " Gravitational Wave Detection by Interferometry (Ground and Space)", J. Hough and S. Rowan, Living Reviews

Sources: black holes

March 15. Stellar-mass: "Black Hole Mergers in the Universe", S. F. Portegies Zwart and S. L. W. McMillan 2000, ApJ, 528, L17
March 22. SPRING BREAK: NO MEETING
March 29. Intermediate-mass: "Gravitational Radiation from Intermediate-Mass Black Holes", M. C. Miller 2002, ApJ, 581, 438
April 5. Supermassive: "Cosmology with coalescing massive black holes", S. A. Hughes and D. E. Holz 2003, Class. Quantum Grav. 20, S65

Sources: other

April 12. Supernovae: "Gravitational radiation from axisymmetric rotational core collapse", K. Kotake et al. 2003, Phys. Rev. D., 68, 044023
April 19. Primordial: "Detectability of the primordial origin of the gravitational wave background in the Universe", J. Lesgourgues et al. 2000, A\&A, 359, 414
For many more theoretical details, see: "Gravitational radiation from cosmological turbulence", A. Kosowsky et al. 2002, Phys. Rev. D., 66, 024030
April 26. WD-WD background: "The gravitational wave background from cosmological compact binaries", A. J. Farmer and E. S. Phinney 2003, MNRAS, 346, 1197

Data analysis

May 3. Matched filtering: "Gravitational waves from eccentric compact binaries: Reduction in signal-to-noise ratio due to nonoptimal signal processing", K. Martel and E. Poisson 1999, Phys. Rev. D, 60, 124008

Numerical relativity

May 10. Algorithms and issues: "Modelling binary black-hole coalescence", J. Baker 2003, Class. Quantum Grav. 20, S201
For more technical details, see: "Calculating Gravitational Wave Signatures from Binary Black Hole Mergers", J. Centrella 2003, astro-ph/0307323

ASTR 688A, Discussion Course on Gravitational Radiation

Spring 2004

Send me to:

Cole's home page
astro home page

ASTR 688A, Discussion Course on Gravitational Radiation

Spring 2004

Send me to:

Cole's home page astro home page

Cole's home page
astro home page