Syracuse University Gravitational Wave Group

Graduate Studies in the Gravitational Wave Group

The interests of the gravitational wave group at Syracuse span a wide range of topics in experiment, data analysis and theory. Our group also has close ties with the Fundamental Theory Group in the SU Physics Department. We welcome interest from existing Syracuse graduate students and undergraduates who are considering graduate studies at Syracuse University.

Possible research projects for Ph.D. students include development, implementation and use of algorithms to search for gravitational waves in LIGO and Virgo detector data, experimental research in advanced detector technologies, modeling sources of gravitational waves, development of data analysis techniques for advanced detectors and gravitational wave detector characterization.

Gravitational-wave astronomy is a new and exciting field for graduate students to pursue research in. LIGO has just finished a two year data taking run and ananalysis of this data (which may contain the first gravitational waves to be seen!) is underway. This image shows the range of the LIGO detectors to one source of gravitational waves (binary neutron star inspiral) on a map of the Universe. The orange sphere shows the sensitivity of the detectors as of October 2007. The purple sphere shows the sensitivity of the next generation detectors, Advanced LIGO. Advanced LIGO will see ten times farther than the initial detectors, with 1000 times more sources in its reach. The radius of the purple sphere is 200 megaparsecs. For comparison, the center of the Milky Way is about 0.08 megaparsecs from the Earth, and the Milky Way is about 0.3 megaparsecs across. The Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the most distant object visible to the naked eye, is only 0.8 megaparsecs away from the Earth. Advanced LIGO will see gravitatational waves from distant clusters and super-clusters of galaxies. (Click on the image for a larger picture.)

If you are interested in a research project with our group please contact Prof. Peter Saulson or Prof. Duncan Brown. Our group has regular meetings in Room 263 on Mondays at 10 am where we discuss our ongoing work. We encourage all SU graduate students interested in gravitational-wave research to attend.

To read more about the graduate program in physics at Syracuse University, and to apply, visit the physics graduate studies home page. Further information about the department and the graduate program can be found on the Physics Department Home Page and the Syracuse University Graduate School Home Page.