Classical and Quantum Gravitation and Cosmology

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The main areas of research will be in general-relativistic astrophysics and cosmology. In the former area, the nonlinear evolution of the unstable r-modes of rotating neutron starts will be investigated. In addition, general-relativistic models of binary neutron stars and of neutron-star-black-hole pairs will be constructed, as part of an iterative procedure to obtain accurate initial data for binary inspiral. In the area of cosmology a new model will be investigated, in which nonperturbative vacuum energy of a quantized field causes an acceleration of the recent expansion of the universe. In relativistic astrophysics, recent surprises have dramatically improved the likelihood that the spin of rapidly rotating, newly formed neutron stars is limited by an instability driven by gravitational waves - and that the emitted waves may be detectable. Developing an accurate numerical solution for binary coalescence is crucial to maximize events that gravitational-wave detectors (LIGO and LISA, in particular) will see and to extract from observed events the physics of the coalescing objects. In cosmology, the most exciting and least understood recent observational discovery is that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, not slowing down.