Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity brought about a profound change in the way we look at our world. In particular, it gave us to understand that the gravitational interaction between masses can be understood in terms of the geometry of spacetime. Whereas physics at first concerned itself with the experimental verification of the theory and the interpretation of new concepts, it focuses now on the theory's astrophysical applications.
The Transregional Collaborative Research Centre brings together more than 50 scientists as well as numerous doctoral students (PhD) and masters students to deal foremost with modelling cosmic sources of gravitational radiation, improving detector designs and analysing gravitational wave signals.
Since J.A. Taylor's and R.A. Hulse's discovery of the radio source PSR 1913+16 and their interpreting it to be a binary star system, gravitational waves can no longer be considered to be a theoretical construct, but an astronomically observed phenomenon.
The direct (Earth based) detection of gravitational waves poses a formidable challenge to experimental technologies and techniques, and has not yet met with success. There is, however, good reason to believe that the large laser interferometers, LIGO (USA), VIRGO (Italy/France), GEO 600 (Germany/Great Britain) and TAMA (Japan), now in the test phase, could soon register the first cosmic gravitational wave signals.
This experimental progress must, of course, be accompanied by theoretical endeavours. After all, the experiments rely on predicted signal forms which, in turn, are based on physical models for the sources of gravitational radiation (supernova explosions, the coalescence of binary stars, collapse phenomena). On the other hand, the nature of the signals will also lead to inferences about the physics of the cosmic sources.
In realising this goal, experimental and theoretical physicists, astrophysicists and mathematicians from the Universities of Jena, Tübingen and Hanover as well as the Max Planck Institutes for Gravitational Physics in Golm and Garching practise close collaboration.
DFG Programme
CRC/Transregios
Completed projects
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A01 - Analysis asymptotisch flacher Raumzeiten
(Project Head
Friedrich, Helmut
)
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A02 - Numerische Berechnung von Gravitationswellen isolierter Systeme
(Project Head
Frauendiener, Jörg
)
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A04 - Analytical Approximation Methods
(Project Head
Schäfer, Gerhard
)
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A05 - Numerical Methods for General Relativity
(Project Heads
Brügmann, Bernd
;
Lubich, Christian
;
Zumbusch, Gerhard
)
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A07 - Pseudo-spectral methods for the Einstein equations on hyperboloidal slices
(Project Head
Ansorg, Marcus
)
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B01 - Rotating Neutron Stars and Black Holes
(Project Heads
Ansorg, Marcus
;
Meinel, Reinhard
)
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B02 - Schwingungsmoden rotierender Neutronensterne
(Project Heads
Kley, Wilhelm
;
Ruder, Hanns
)
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B03 - Gravitational Collapse of Compact Astrophysical Objects
(Project Head
Müller, Ewald
)
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B04 - Inspiralling Black Holes and Neutron Stars
(Project Head
Schäfer, Gerhard
)
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B05 - Collision and Merger of Black Holes and Neutron Stars
(Project Heads
Brügmann, Bernd
;
Rezzolla, Luciano
;
Thornburg, Jonathan
)
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B06 - Merging of Neutron Stars
(Project Heads
Janka, Hans-Thomas
;
Rezzolla, Luciano
)
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B07 - Orbiting Black Holes
(Project Head
Brügmann, Bernd
)
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B08 - Gravitational Waves from Oscillations and Instabilities of Relativistic Stars
(Project Head
Kokkotas, Ph.D., Kostas
)
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B09 - Magnetars
(Project Heads
Kokkotas, Ph.D., Kostas
;
Neuhäuser, Ralph
)
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B10 - Electromagnetic Counterparts to Supermassive Binary Black Hole Mergers
(Project Heads
Amaro-Seoane, Ph.D., Pau
;
Rezzolla, Luciano
)
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C01 - Iterative Design of the Sensitivity Curve of Gravitational Wave Detectors
(Project Heads
Danzmann, Karsten
;
Lück, Harald
;
Schutz, Bernard
)
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C02 - Interpretation of Gravitational Wave Signals
(Project Heads
Allen, Bruce
;
Neuhäuser, Ralph
;
Papa, Maria Alessandra
)
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C03 - High resolution interferometer based on reflective optical components
(Project Heads
Danzmann, Karsten
;
Tünnermann, Andreas
)
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C04 - Quality Factor Measurements at Cryogenic Temperatures
(Project Heads
Nawrodt, Ronny
;
Seidel, Paul
;
Tünnermann, Andreas
)
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C05 - High-reflection waveguide coatings for detector test masses
(Project Heads
Schnabel, Roman
;
Tünnermann, Andreas
)
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C06 - LISA Data Analysis Methods
(Project Heads
Danzmann, Karsten
;
Heinzel, Gerhard
;
Schutz, Bernard
)
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C07 - Populations of Astrophysical Sources
(Project Heads
Neuhäuser, Ralph
;
Werner, Klaus
)
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C08 - Nonclassical readout for gravitational wave detectors
(Project Heads
Danzmann, Karsten
;
Schnabel, Roman
)
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C09 - Optical Properties of Silicon-Based Test Masses
(Project Heads
Nawrodt, Ronny
;
Schnabel, Roman
)
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C10 - Coherent Noise Cancellation for Optomechanical Sensing and Gravitational Wave Detectors
(Project Head
Heurs, Michèle
)
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Z - Central Administration
(Project Head
Brügmann, Bernd
)
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Ö - Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
(Project Head
Brügmann, Bernd
)
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Ö - Public Outreach "Gravitational Wave Astronomy"
(Project Head
Brügmann, Bernd
)