Date of Graduation

7-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Physics

Advisor/Mentor

Kennefick, Daniel J.

Committee Member

Lehmer, Bret D.

Second Committee Member

Oliver, William F. III

Third Committee Member

Rieck, Yo'av

Keywords

Christodoulou memory; Darboux transformation; EMRI; Extreme Mass Ratio Inspiral; Gravitational waves; Nonlinear memory

Abstract

We begin with a brief introduction to gravitational waves. Next we look into the origin of the Chandrasekhar transformations between the different equations found by perturbing a Schwarzschild black hole. Some of the relationships turn out to be Darboux transformations. Then we turn to GW150914, the first detected black hole binary system, to see if the nonlinear memory might be detectable by current and future detectors. Finally, we develop an updated code for computing equatorial extreme mass ratio inspirals which will be open sourced as soon as it has been generalized for arbitrary inclinations.

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