Last Modified: 2010 March 4
Charlie Torres / charlie@phys.utb.edu
Much of the group's research is driven by anticipation of the Laser interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and other upcoming detectors of gravitational waves, but we also have research interests in other fields of relativity.
Follow the header links below for more information and references on the physical problems.
The generation of gravitiational waves is a consequence of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, a prediction which has been spectacularly confirmed by the evolution of the binary pulsar. However, the population of astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, and the precise form of the radiation from such sources, is still a subject of vigorous study.
Due to the weakness of the gravitational interaction, sophisticated data analysis algorithms are needed to extract gravitational wave signals from instrumental and environmental noise. The development of data analysis techniques to search for a variety of predicted (and also unknown!) sources of gravitational radiation is a major effort of our research group and other research groups throughout the world.
In gravitation, as in electromagnetism, one generally breaks the interaction of particles and fields into two parts: how an external field affects a moving charge and what kind of field a charge generates. In the radiation reaction problem, we combine these to ask "how does the field a charge generates affect its own motion".
In addition to the topics listed above, members of our research group have interests in other areas of gravitational physics. These include canonical quantum gravity (e.g., Ashtekar variables), degenerate extensions of general relativity, quantum field theory in curved spacetime, Huygen's principle in curved spacetime, black hole interiors, path integrals, and generalized quantum mechanics.