Dynamical, Strong-Field Gravity

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

The research goals of the project are focused on understanding the strong-field regime of Einstein's theory of general relativity. This encompasses both astrophysical and theoretical aspects of general relativity. On the astrophysical side, the main effort is an ongoing study of sources of gravitational waves in our universe, in particular binary black hole, black hole-neutron star and binary neutron star collisions. When neutron stars are involved in the collision, further questions involving potentially observable electromagnetic counterpart emission and production of r-process elements in ejected material will be pursued. The theoretical work includes studies of gravitational collapse and corresponding critical phenomena, the ultrarelativistic regime of particle collisions where gravity dominates the interaction, and the nature of gravity in higher dimensional spacetimes. Of particular interest for the latter subject are asymptotically Anti de-Sitter (AdS) spacetimes, where the gravitational dynamics can be related to the physics of strongly coupled conformal field theories (CFTs) via the AdS/CFT correspondence of string theory. This research will contribute crucial information to our understanding of sources of gravitational waves in the universe and so form an integral part of the burgeoning field of gravitational wave astronomy. It will further provide a deeper understanding of the dynamical strong-field regime of general relativity, and help expand our knowledge of the interrelations between general relativity, high energy physics, and quantum gravity. The pursuit of these projects will involve graduate students, undergraduates and postdoctoral fellows. They will thus be trained to do leading scientific research, become knowledgeable in corresponding areas of physics, and adept in high-performance computing and numerical methods. These skills are invaluable to many professions, and would thus also benefit and further the development of those students and postdocs that subsequently wish to pursue careers outside academia.