Dr. Benjamin Steltner

I work on the detection and analysis of continuous gravitational waves—a persistent and nearly monochromatic type of signal expected from rotating neutron stars with non-axisymmetric deformations. Unlike the short bursts from compact binary mergers, continuous gravitational waves are orders of magnitude weaker, making them extremely challenging to detect.

My research focuses on developing and applying advanced data analysis techniques to search for these elusive signals using data from the ground-based Advanced LIGO detectors. A major focus of my work involves the Einstein@Home all-sky searches, which harness distributed volunteer computing to scan the sky for unknown neutron stars emitting continuous waves.

Within this effort, I have worked on multiple aspects of the analysis pipeline: from data preparation—including time- and frequency-domain cleaning—to setting up and running large-scale searches, to the post-processing of search results, aimed at identifying promising candidates and reducing false alarms.

Through this work, I aim to uncover new continuous-wave sources, better understand neutron star properties, and push the boundaries of what is observationally possible in gravitational-wave astronomy.

Unfortunately, we haven't found a continuous wave signal yet—but that only makes the next dataset or search all the more exciting!