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Testing fundamental physics with gravitational waves
The recent arrival of gravitational wave observations has opened a new window onto the Universe. These gravitational waves both inform us about the structure of the objects emitting them (black holes and neutron stars), about cosmological physics governing the propagation of these waves over the distances these waves travel from their sources to our detectors, as well as about other fundamental fields and their interactions with the waves themselves. The student for this project will join the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and will lead work on testing and constraining these different aspects using the gravitational waves we observe.
More specifically, this will involve 1) theoretical components: understanding the underlying fundamental physics using so-called effective field theory techniques, 2) coding components: developing analysis code and implementing the underlying physics in this code to investigate the above-mentioned aspects of gravitational wave emission and propagation, and 3) data analysis components: using new data from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration together with the developed analysis codes to test and constrain new physics with gravitational waves.
Contact Dr Johannes Noller (j.noller AT ucl.ac.uk)