FunGraW · Fundamental physics in the era of gravitational-wave astronomy
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-01-01 → 2020-12-31
- EU contribution
- €168,277
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Fundamental physics in the era of gravitational-wave astronomy
The direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO and Virgo interferometers is one of the greatest achievements of modern science. A significant effort is now in place to further increase the sensitivity of current detectors and prepare for the construction of future ground and space-based GW detectors. These developments promise to open an era of precision GW physics and have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics. The observation of GWs gives us the unique opportunity to observe and study with great precision an otherwise invisible side of the Universe, with a tremendous potential for new and unexpected discoveries. Indeed, such observations will allow us to probe the highly-dynamical and nonlinear regime of Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR) to unprecedented levels and could also have profound implications for particle physics, potentially helping to uncover the nature of dark matter. This, however, requires a significant theoretical effort in order to interpret the observations in view of our best theories. The FunGraW project aimed precisely at joining this effort by developing theoretical tools that can help tackling questions such as: i) Can we use GW observations to probe the existence of new particles, such as ultralight bosons, that could possibly explain the nature of dark matter? ii) Can GWs provide conclusive evidence for the existence of BHs as described in GR and rule out alternative models?
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The first gravitational wave (GW) detections by the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) are an historical landmark. These detections opened a completely new window to the Universe and officially marked the beginning of GW astronomy.GWs travel almost unimpeded through the Universe, thus conveying clean information about their sources. This gives us a unique opportunity to test the nonlinear regime of Einstein’s theory of general relativity (GR) to unprecedented levels. Indeed, the GWs detected so far were emitted by the merger of binary black holes (BHs) which are the prototypical sources to investigate gravity in its most extreme regimes. However, the true potential of GW observatories to discover new physics beyond of current knowledge is far from being fully explored. In fact, besides probing the nature of compact objects and testing GR, GW detectors may also revolutionize our understanding of particle physics, dark matter (DM) and even possibly quantum gravity. At small scales, with the advent of precision GW physics we will be probing regions closer to the BH horizon, potentially ruling out or confirming alternatives to BHs that predict corrections at the horizon scale. On the opposite side of the spectrum, GWs may also give us hints about the nature of large scale anomalies, such as the existence of DM. For example, light bosonic fields around compact objects, i.e. BHs and neutron stars (NSs), can trigger superradiant instabilities and emit long-lived monochromatic GWs that can be used to either probe the existence of new particles beyond the Standard Model or, in the absence of detections, impose strong constraints on their masses and couplings. The prime goal of this proposal is to understand what GWs can tell us about fundamental questions such as the nature of compact objects and DM and ultimately to contribute to the recent theoretical efforts in developing the full scientific potential of the newborn field of GW astronomy.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA · RomaCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union