Antonios Tsokaros
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL·Astronomy & Astrophysics
When two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole, spiral together and merge, they shake space itself, sending out gravitational waves, and can also give off light and neutrinos. Catching all these signals at once, as happened with the 2017 event GW170817, is called multimessenger astronomy.
- Fields
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics
- Topics
general relativity
numerical relativity
gravitational waves
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Develop an open-source general relativistic initial data code, based on the COCAL (Compact Object CALculator) code, that lets users set up starting conditions for magnetized neutron stars and black holes, alone or in binaries.
- Build connections between the new initial data code and existing simulation evolution codes, and produce extensive documentation to lower the entry barrier for new researchers.
- Simulate the inspiral and merger of black hole and neutron star binaries on supercomputers, including magnetic fields and neutrino transport, to predict gravitational wave and light signals.
- Model the formation of supermassive black holes from collapsing supermassive stars, gas disks around merging supermassive black hole pairs, and dark matter profiles around black holes in galaxy cores such as the Milky Way.
More about the research
It could explain where short gamma-ray bursts come from, how heavy elements such as gold form through the r-process (rapid neutron capture), and how matter behaves when squeezed denser than an atomic nucleus. Reading these signals requires detailed computer simulations based on Einstein's general relativity. The two projects here cover both ends of that work: building the starting conditions for simulations, and running and analyzing simulations of extreme systems.
Why it matters
Gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO, and planned instruments like LIGO Voyager and LISA, need accurate theoretical predictions to interpret what they see. This work provides open modeling tools and simulation results that astronomers can compare against observations, helping explain gamma-ray bursts, the origin of heavy elements and the behavior of ultra-dense matter.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Wolfgang Tichy
Florida Atlantic University, FL·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Simulate binary neutron star mergers containing dark matter across a range of dark matter fractions, particle masses, mass ratios and spins with the BAM code, to set limits on dark matter in neutron stars.
Rodolfo Barniol Duran
California State University-Sacramento, CA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Build "meter-to-parsec" numerical simulations that follow neutron star–neutron star and neutron star–black hole mergers from the pre-merger state to the regions where observed light is produced.
Tamara Bogdanovic
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Model the time-dependent X-ray brightness and spectra expected from massive black hole binaries as they spiral toward merger while emitting gravitational waves.
The school
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: 41 labs on PI Pages, $907M a year on research, 870 research doctorates a year.
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