I am a theoretical gravitational wave astrophysicist, developing methods to discover and interpret the ripples in the fabric of the universe produced by merging compact binaries: black holes and neutron stars. Some of my work is within the LIGO Scientific Collaboration , a group of researchers supporting the US-based LIGO gravitational wave detector.

CV & Publications

Publication Links via ADS, arxiv.org, Inspires

Students & Student Projects

Selected publications: Detection of Gravitational Waves

B. Abbott et al. Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger PRL 116, 061102 , February 2016.

B. Abbott et al. Astrophysical Implications of the binary black hole merger GW150914. ApJ Letters 818:L22 , February 2016.

B. Abbott et al. Properties of the binary black hole merger GW150914. Accepted by PRL, February 2016.

B. Abbott et al. Directly comparing GW150914 with numerical solutions of Einstein's equations for binary black hole coalescence. Submitted to PRD; available as arxiv:1606.01262, June 2016.

B. Abbott et al. GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence. PRL 116 241103 (2016), June 2016.

B. Abbott et al. Binary Black Hole Mergers in the first Advanced LIGO Observing Run. Available at papers.ligo.org, June 2016.

Other Selected Publications

R. O’Shaughnessy et al. Precession during merger: Strong polarization changes are observationally accessible features of strong-field gravity during binary black hole merger. PRD, 87(4):044038, February 2013.

A. Lundgren and R. O’Shaughnessy. A single-spin precessing gravitational wave in closed form.

PRD, 89:4021, Feb 2014.

M. Dominik et al, Double Compact Objects III: Gravitational Wave Detection Rates , ApJ 806:263 (June 2015)

K. Belczynski, R. O’Shaughnessy, et al. The Lowest-Mass Stellar Black Holes: Catastrophic Death of Neutron Stars in Gamma-Ray Bursts. ApJL , 680:L129–L132, June 2008.

D. Gerosa, M. Kesden, R. O’Shaughnessy, A. Klein, E. Berti, U. Sperhake, and D. Trifiro.Precessional instability in binary black holes with aligned spins. PRL 115,141102 , Oct 2015.

D. Gerosa, M. Kesden, E. Berti, R. O’Shaughnessy , and U. Sperhake. Resonant-plane locking and spin alignment in stellar-mass black-hole binaries: a diagnostic of compact-binary formation. PRD, 87(10):104028, May 2013.

J. Aasi et al. (The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration). Prospects for Localization of Gravitational Wave Transients by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo Observatories. (arXiv:1304.0670), April 2013.

J. Abadie et al (The LIGO-Virgo Scientific Collaboration). Predictions for the Rates of Compact Binary Coalescences Observable by Ground-based Gravitational wave Detectors. CQG , 27(17):173001, September 2010.