Deirdre Shoemaker

Associate Professor of Physics

 
 
This is a unique time in science, one that will witness a change in the understanding of gravity, one of the      four fundamental forces of nature. This change is shepherded by the imminent detection of gravitational wav
es. Facilities such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) are now operational and conducting searches. Fundamental to the success of the search for gravitational waves is the theoretical modeling of the sources that produce them. Over the past year, numerical relativity has begun to successfully solve Einstein's equations governing gravity for the strongest source of gravitational waves, the final few orbits and plunge of two black holes. Taken together with gravitational wave detection, these models probe the mysteries of relativity by interpreting what nature is telling us about gravity. The end result may just be a whole new way of looking at gravity.
 

Gravity ...

affiliations


Numerical Relativity @ GT

Center for Relativistic Astrophysics

School of Physics

Computational Science and Engineering Division

Georgia Institute of Technology

contact


office: 1-65 Boggs Building

phone: 404.385.3908

fax: 404.894.9958

email: deirdre at gatech dot edu

mail


837 State St.

School of Physics

Georgia Institute of Technology

Atlanta GA 30332-0430

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