International Summer Research Program in Gravitational-Wave Physics:
Research Experiences for Undergraduates around the world
Contact: Andrew Melatos
The University of Melbourne's gravitational physics group is at the forefront of research on gravitational wave science including LIGO source modeling, data analysis techniques and data infrastructure. The group, led by Dr Andrew Melatos, created and maintains pipelines and code for LIGO continuous gravitational wave searches for the neutron star remnant from supernova 1987A (potentially the youngest neutron star) and the low mass X-ray binary system Sco X-1 (the brightest astrophysical X-ray source other than the Sun). On the theoretical front, the group works on new LIGO sources, predominantly from neutron stars, including accreted magnetic mountains, superfluid turbulence, pulsar glitches and neutron star magnetic flares. We perform some of the biggest simulations ranging across all scales of physics: from full simulations of neutron stars including Einstein's gravity, extreme magnetic fields and quantum fluids, to highly-detailed small-scale simulations of quantum processes expected to play crucial roles in neutron star dynamics. REU students would be supervised by Andrew Melatos and Postdoc Paul Lasky.