Project Profile

Simulation (numerical relativity and the Einstein Toolkit) of the last few hundred milliseconds in the lifetime of neutron star binaries. At this point the stars move with a fraction of the speed of light orbiting each other dozens of times per second and emitting copious amounts of gravitational radiation.

We use these simulations to construct models for the emitted radiation that are used by LIGO scientists to look for signals of merging neutron stars in LIGO’s data stream. Shortly before the collide tidal forces tear apart the neutron stars and fling material away from the them, which forms and accretion disk around the black hole or hyerpmassive neutron star that forms in the collision. As the material from the disk falls onto the central object it fuels high energy electromagnetic emission which are expected to be the origin of short hard Gamma ray burst observed with satellites on Earth.

Project Team