PHYS675 Fall2008

physics 879

special topic in general relativity: gravitational-wave physics

spring 2013 schedule

instructor: alessandra buonanno

class room: phys 4102

lecture days: tuesday & thursday 9:30pm - 10:45pm

first day of class: january 24

last day of class: may 9

contact info

office room: phys 4212
e-mail: buonanno@umd.edu
phone: (301) 405 1440
office hours: after class or by appointment

grader

grader: Andrea Taracchini
office room: 4208

e-mail: ataracch@umd.edu

textbooks

the required textbook is "gravitational waves volume 1: theory and experiments"
by michele maggiore

prerequisite

to follow the classes, students should have already mastered the material covered
in an introductory general relativity course. By contrast it is not necessary to have
followed a course in astrophysics and/or cosmology.

exam

none.

grading

the course grade will be based on the homeworks (1/3) and final project (2/3).

homework rules

late homeworks are accepted only under serious circumstances (to be discussed before due day).
you are encouraged to discuss homeworks with other students, however the work you turn in should be your own formulation and reflection.
use of previous solutions is not allowed (violation of this rule is cause for failure of the course).
homework sets must show reasoning leading to the final answers in a clear and readable fashion to obtain credit
please, include your name and staple the pages together

academic integrity

the university has approved a code of academic integrity available on the web. the code
prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper
for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent
documents, and forging signatures. the university senate requires that students include
the following signed statement on each examination or assignment: “i pledge on my
honor that i have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination
(or assignment).” compliance with the code is administered by a student honor council,
which strives to promote a “community of trust” on the college park campus. allegations
of academic dishonesty can be reported directly to the honor council (314-9154) by any
member of the campus community.

course description

Tentative course plan - will be adjusted during semester.

The course also had guest lectures from Dr. Cole Miller, Dr. John Baker and Dr. Yi Pan.

Date	Tuesday	Thursday
Jan 24		Overview
Jan 29, 31	Linearization of Einstein equations, Lorenz gauge, transverse-traceless gauge	Interaction of GWs with freely-falling test particles, key ideas underlying GW detectors
Feb 5, 7	Effective EMT of GWs, GW energy and linear-momentum fluxes	Propagation of GWs in curved spacetime, geometric optics approximation
Feb 12, 14	Interaction of GWs with matter, gravitational lensing, absorption and scattering	Leading-order generation of GWs in the slow-motion approximation for self-gravitating sources
Feb 19, 21	Quadrupole formula	GWs from binary systems
Feb 26, 28	Astrophysical predictions for binary coalescing rates	Binaries on elliptic orbits
March 5, 7	Basics of PN formalism	Basics of PN formalism
March 12,14	Numerical relativity	Numerical relativity
March 26, 28	Perturbation theory and black hole quasi-normal modes	Effective-one-body formalism
April 2, 4	Effective-one-body formalism	Inspiraling templates in GR and alternative theories
April 9, 11	Spin effects/tidal effects/EM counterparts	GWs from rotating rigid bodies (pulsars)
April 16, 18	GWs from core-collapse supernovae	GWs from the early Universe
April 23, 25	Data analysis	Data analysis
April 30, 2	GWs from the early Universe	GWs from the early Universe
May 7, 9	How LIGO works	Quantum-optical noise in GW detectors
May 14 (?)	students' presentations

Video course at Caltech by Kip Thorne

references on week 1-2:

slides of first class

homeworks on week 1:
(assigned on Jan 23, due on Jan 31)

problem P1
solution S1

references on week 3:

Chapter 1 in Maggiore's book

Secs. 2 and 3 in Buonanno's review
Secs. 2 and 3 in Flanagan & Hughes's review

homeworks on week 2:
(assigned on Feb 5, due on Feb 12)

problem P2
solution S2

references on week 4:

Chapter 1 in Maggiore's book

Sec. 5 in Flanagan & Hughes's review
Sec. 2.2 in Flanagan & Hughes's review for gauge invariant formalism

references on week 5:

Chapter 3 in Maggiore's book

Secs. 2 & 4 in Flanagan & Hughes's review
Sec. 5 in Buonanno's review

homeworks on weeks 3 & 4:
(assigned on Feb 19, due on Feb 26)

references on week 6:

Chapters 3 & 4 in Maggiore's book

homeworks on weeks 5 & 6:
(assigned on March 5, due on March 12)

problem P5-6
solution S5-6

references on week 7:

Chapter 4 & 5 in Maggiore's book

homeworks on week 7:
(assigned on March 14, due on March 26)

problem P7
solution S7

references on week 8:

Review by Pretorius
Review by Baker et al. (in particular Sec. IV contains what John covered in his first lecture)
Chapters 2, 3 & 4 in "Numerical Relativity" by Baumgarte and Shapiro

references on week 9:

For metric perturbations of the Schwarzschild spacetime: Regge & Wheeler (1957)
For quasi-normal modes from numerical studies: Vishveshwara (1970), Press (1971)
For the derivation of quasi-normal modes using the WKB approximation: Schutz & Will (1985)
For curvature perturbations of the Kerr spacetime: Teukolsky (1972-1973)
For the interpretation of quasi-normal modes as waves trapped at the unstable circular null geodesic (light-ring): Goebel (1972) and Mashhoon (1985)
For the correct identification of a quasi-normal mode to a damped oscillator: Maggiore (2008)

references on week 10:

For the effective one-body formalism see Buonanno & Damour (1999-2000)
For inspiraling templates see Sec. 6.4 in Buonanno's review

homeworks on weeks 9 & 10:
(assigned on April 2, due on April 11)

problem P9-10
solution S9-10

references on week 11:

For inspiraling templates see Sec. 6.4 in Buonanno's review
For alternative theories of gravity see Will (1994), Will (1998), Damour \& Esposito-Farese (1993-1996)
For GWs from rotating bodies (pulsars) see Sec. 4.2 in Maggiore's book

references on week 12:

For GWs from rotating bodies (pulsars) see Sec. 4.2 in Maggiore's book
For Gws from core collapse see recent review by Janka et al.
For GWs produced in the early Universe see Michele Maggiore's Physics Report (2000) and Bruce Allen's Les Houches Lectures (1996)

references on week 13:

Chapter 7, Secs. 7.1-7.4 in Maggiore's book
For a good and comprehensive discussion on measurement, see Sec II and Appendix A of Cutler and Flanagan (1994)
For a rigorous discussion of detection, measurement and measurement sensitivity, see Secs. II and III of Finn (1992)

references on week 14:

For GWs produced in the early Universe see Michele Maggiore's Physics Report (2000) and Bruce Allen's Les Houches Lectures (1996)

references on week 15:

Secs. 9.1, 9.2, 9.4 in Maggiore's book

questions and comments may be sent to buonanno@umd.edu
last modified on 5/7/2013