Project Details
Projekt
TRR 7: Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Subject Area
Physics
Term
from 2003 to 2014
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5485423
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.
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
- A01 - Analysis asymptotisch flacher Raumzeiten (Project Head Friedrich, Helmut )
- A02 - Numerische Berechnung von Gravitationswellen isolierter Systeme (Project Head Frauendiener, Jörg )
- A04 - Analytical Approximation Methods (Project Head Schäfer, Gerhard )
- A05 - Numerical Methods for General Relativity (Project Heads Brügmann, Bernd ; Lubich, Christian ; Zumbusch, Gerhard )
- A07 - Pseudo-spectral methods for the Einstein equations on hyperboloidal slices (Project Head Ansorg, Marcus )
- B01 - Rotating Neutron Stars and Black Holes (Project Heads Ansorg, Marcus ; Meinel, Reinhard )
- B02 - Schwingungsmoden rotierender Neutronensterne (Project Heads Kley, Wilhelm ; Ruder, Hanns )
- B03 - Gravitational Collapse of Compact Astrophysical Objects (Project Head Müller, Ewald )
- B04 - Inspiralling Black Holes and Neutron Stars (Project Head Schäfer, Gerhard )
- B05 - Collision and Merger of Black Holes and Neutron Stars (Project Heads Brügmann, Bernd ; Rezzolla, Luciano ; Thornburg, Jonathan )
- B06 - Merging of Neutron Stars (Project Heads Janka, Hans-Thomas ; Rezzolla, Luciano )
- B07 - Orbiting Black Holes (Project Head Brügmann, Bernd )
- B08 - Gravitational Waves from Oscillations and Instabilities of Relativistic Stars (Project Head Kokkotas, Ph.D., Kostas )
- B09 - Magnetars (Project Heads Kokkotas, Ph.D., Kostas ; Neuhäuser, Ralph )
- B10 - Electromagnetic Counterparts to Supermassive Binary Black Hole Mergers (Project Heads Amaro-Seoane, Ph.D., Pau ; Rezzolla, Luciano )
- C01 - Iterative Design of the Sensitivity Curve of Gravitational Wave Detectors (Project Heads Danzmann, Karsten ; Lück, Harald ; Schutz, Bernard )
- C02 - Interpretation of Gravitational Wave Signals (Project Heads Allen, Bruce ; Neuhäuser, Ralph ; Papa, Maria Alessandra )
- C03 - High resolution interferometer based on reflective optical components (Project Heads Danzmann, Karsten ; Tünnermann, Andreas )
- C04 - Quality Factor Measurements at Cryogenic Temperatures (Project Heads Nawrodt, Ronny ; Seidel, Paul ; Tünnermann, Andreas )
- C05 - High-reflection waveguide coatings for detector test masses (Project Heads Schnabel, Roman ; Tünnermann, Andreas )
- C06 - LISA Data Analysis Methods (Project Heads Danzmann, Karsten ; Heinzel, Gerhard ; Schutz, Bernard )
- C07 - Populations of Astrophysical Sources (Project Heads Neuhäuser, Ralph ; Werner, Klaus )
- C08 - Nonclassical readout for gravitational wave detectors (Project Heads Danzmann, Karsten ; Schnabel, Roman )
- C09 - Optical Properties of Silicon-Based Test Masses (Project Heads Nawrodt, Ronny ; Schnabel, Roman )
- C10 - Coherent Noise Cancellation for Optomechanical Sensing and Gravitational Wave Detectors (Project Head Heurs, Michèle )
- Z - Central Administration (Project Head Brügmann, Bernd )
- Ö - Öffentlichkeitsarbeit (Project Head Brügmann, Bernd )
- Ö - Public Outreach "Gravitational Wave Astronomy" (Project Head Brügmann, Bernd )
Applicant Institution
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Participating Institution
Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA); Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik
(Albert-Einstein-Institut)
(Albert-Einstein-Institut)
Co-Applicant Institution
Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Bernd Brügmann
