About
Paul Ricker is a professor in the Department of Astronomy at Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. His research interests focus on computational astrophysics, with applications to binary stars, galaxy clusters, compact objects, and supernovae. He specializes in parallel numerical algorithm and simulation code development to advance understanding in these areas. Ricker holds a Ph.D. in Physics from The University of Chicago, an M.S.. in Physics from The University of Chicago, and a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from Pennsylvania State University. He has been recognized with awards such as the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the DOE/NNSA and the Gordon Bell Prize. Ricker teaches a range of courses including Introduction to Astronomy, Astrophysics, Computing in Astronomy, Stellar Astrophysics, and Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology. He is also affiliated with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and serves as a faculty member in the Physics department. His recent publications involve studies on common envelope evolution, active galactic nucleus accretion, planetary nebulae, and multiphysics simulation software.
Research topics
- Physics
- Astrophysics
- Computer Science
- Astronomy
- Quantum mechanics
- Mathematics
- Theoretical physics
- Computational science
- Optics
- Classical mechanics
Selected publications
Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
2017 · 1398 citations
On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg² at a luminosity distance of 40₋₈⁺⁸ Mpc a…
Physical Review Letters · 2020 · 1301 citations
On May 21, 2019 at 03:02:29 UTC Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo observed a short duration gravitational-wave signal, GW190521, with a three-detector network signal-to-noise ratio of 14.7, and an estimated false-alarm rate of 1 in 4900 yr using a search sensitive to generic transients. If GW190521 is from a quasicircular binary inspiral, then the detected signal is consistent with the merger of two black holes with masses of 85_{-14}^{+21} M_{⊙} and 66_{-18}^{+17} M_{⊙} (90% credible intervals).…
Deleted Journal · 2020 · 981 citations
We present our current best estimate of the plausible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next several years, with the intention of providing information to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals for the third (O3), fourth (O4) and fifth observing (O5) runs, including the planned upgrades of the Advanced LIGO…
The Astrophysical Journal Letters · 2021 · 900 citations
Abstract We report on the population of 47 compact binary mergers detected with a false-alarm rate of < <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>yr</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> in the second LIGO–Virgo Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. We observe several characteristics of the merging binary black hole…
Physical review. D/Physical review. D. · 2021 · 749 citations
Gravitational waves enable tests of general relativity in the highly dynamical and strong-field regime. Using events detected by LIGO-Virgo up to 1 October 2019, we evaluate the consistency of the data with predictions from the theory. We first establish that residuals from the best-fit waveform are consistent with detector noise, and that the low- and high-frequency parts of the signals are in agreement. We then consider parametrized modifications to the waveform by varying post-Newtonian and p…
Recent grants
Investigations of the Common-Envelope Phase of Binary Star Evolution
NSF · $351k · 2014–2020
Frequent coauthors
- 464 shared
J. van den Brand
- 336 shared
A. Heidmann
- 309 shared
E. Chassande–Mottin
Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie
- 304 shared
R. Frey
- 285 shared
T. Briant
Collège de France
- 281 shared
N. Arnaud
Université Paris-Saclay
- 280 shared
M. Wąs
Laboratoire d’Annecy de Physique des Particules
- 277 shared
E. K. Porter
Université Paris Cité
Education
- 1996
PhD, Physics
University of Chicago
- 1993
MS, Physics
University of Chicago
- 1991
BS, Physics
Pennsylvania State University
Awards & honors
- Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers…
- DOE/NNSA Gordon Bell Prize
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