Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Studies In Gravitational-Wave Astronomy And Tests Of General Relativity, Hong Qi

Theses and Dissertations

Modern astronomical data sets provide the opportunity to test our physical theories of the Universe at unprecedented levels of accuracy. This dissertation examines approaches to testing gravitational theories using a) observations of stars orbiting the center of the Milky Way; b) observations of the pulsations of Cepheid variable stars in dwarf galaxies; and c) gravitational-wave observations of compact binary mergers.

Observations of stars orbiting the center of the Milky Way have been used to infer the mass of the putative black hole that exists there. I discuss how well present and future measurements of stellar orbits can constrain the black …

Turbulent Collapse Of Gravitationally Bound Clouds, Daniel William Murray

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore the time-variable rate of star formation, using both numerical and analytic techniques. I discuss the dynamics of collapsing regions, the effect of protostellar jets, and development of software for use in the hydrodynamic code RAMSES. I perform high-resolution adaptive mesh refinement simulations of star formation in self-gravitating turbulently driven gas. I have run simulations including hydrodynamics (HD), and HD with protostellar jet feedback. Accretion begins when the turbulent fluctuations on largescales, near the driving scale, produce a converging flow. I find that the character of the collapse changes at two radii, the disk radius $r_d$, …