Oscar Barrera

Oscar Barrera

Mentor

Dr. Imre Bartos

College

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Major

Physics

Minor

N/A

Organizations

Hispanic Student Association

Academic Awards

Christopher B. Schaffer Undergraduate Research Scholarship, University Scholars Program, Florida Academic Scholarship

Volunteering

Susan g Komen For The Cure

Research Interests

Multi-Messenger Astrophysics, Gravitational Waves, Black Hole Evolution, Inspiral Mergers, Computational Astrophysics

Hobbies and Interests

Guitarist/Singer, Basketball

Research Project

Reverse Engineering the Mass of the Heaviest Black Hole Merger Discovered

On May 21, 2019 Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521. A curious aspect of its mass is that it cannot be explained by the usual means we expect black holes to form: stellar core collapse. This would imply that GW190521 is a product of generations of mergers, and thus it is the purpose of this research to deduce those generations. Our current approximation of the physics of these mergers occurs in 4 dimensions: two for mass and two for spin. This presents the issue of creating a parameter space in 4 dimensions, along with the need for simulations across hundreds of thousands of masses and spins. This project will be completed using LIGO data, GW-OSC’s parameter estimation, and NRSUR7dq4, an inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform model.