INFN and CINECA together to study gravitational waves

A series of partnership agreement between INFN and CINECA are in place involving various activities in supercomputing. One of this partnership has led to the realisation of the GALILEO supercomputer. The aim of these initiatives is the progress of the research in computational Physics in Italy. In this context, the group coordinated by Prof. Roberto De Pietri (Parma University and INFN) has recently completed a series of simulations of the merger of binary Neutron Stars (Phys. Rev. D (in press 2016), view abstract). The gravitational wave emitted by this kind of events are one of the main target to be detected by the LIGO/VIRGO interferometer and the observed signal share much of the properties of the signal detect on September 14th 2015 from the merger of two Black Holes. The detection of the gravitational waves emitted by the merger of two Neutron Stars (object of this study) will open new frontiers in the understanding of the physics of nuclear matter in the extreme conditions that are present in Neutron stars (these objects have the properties of having a radius of about 10 km and a mass around 1.5 of our Sun). This research was almost entirely performed using Cineca supercomputing facilities that are, as always, at the disposal of European and ITALIAN research community.