Project Grant 2205920

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation will fund research at the University of Mississippi to advance understanding of compact binary formation through gravitational-wave observations. With $228,443 in funding over three years from August 2022 to July 2025, the award supports development of computational models and software codes to probe the full evolutionary history of precessing binary black holes on both quasi-circular and eccentric orbits. Researchers will also explore formation scenarios of binaries containing black holes in the "low-mass gap" of approximately 3 to 5 solar masses. The work aims to constrain various formation channels for all three types of merging binaries—binary black holes, binary neutron stars, and neutron star-black hole systems—and their astrophysical environments. This award advances the goals of the NSF's Windows on the Universe Big Idea under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to increase scientific knowledge of major problems.