CAREER: General Relativistic Modeling of Stellar Death for Advanced LIGO Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

This program will theoretically underpin Advanced LIGO's searches for gravitational waves (GWs) from stellar collapse and core-collapse supernovae and will lay the foundations for a GW-neutrino multimessenger astronomy of core-collapse supernovae in preparation for the next galactic supernova. The project team will develop open-source computer software and efficient algorithms to simulate core-collapse supernovae in full 3D, study the associated emission of gravitational waves and neutrinos, and establish the understanding of how these messengers can be profitably used to probe the astrophysics of supernovae and fundamental physics. The education program consists of a bi-annual summer school at the California Institute of Technology that will bring together astronomy and gravitational-wave physics graduate students to train them in the physics and astrophysics of gravitational-wave sources. Core-collapse supernovae are among the most energetic events in the universe. They are triggered by the collapse of supergiant stars and their explosions enrich the interstellar gas with the elements of life (carbon, oxygen, iron). This research program is motivated by the pressing need to understand how core-collapse supernovae work. It is known that these extreme events are connected to the collapse of massive stars, but it has not yet been clearly established how the initial collapse is reversed and turned into an explosion. An observation of the next galactic core-collapse supernova by Advanced LIGO and by neutrino observatories may shed light on the supernova phenomenon and this research project strives towards creating the theoretical foundation for the interpretation of such signals. The educational part of this program is motivated by the need, in preparation for Advanced LIGO, of training the first generation of true GW astronomers -- scientists who are trained in the physics and observation of gravitational waves and in the physics and astrophysics of their sources.