Department of Physics & AstronomyMatthew DuezMatthew Duez

Matthew Duez

  1. Professor
Email Addressm.duez@wsu.edu
Location0947E Webster Physical Sciences Building
Phone509-335-2396

Biography

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Compact object binaries consisting of either two neutron stars (NSNS binaries) or a black hole and a neutron star (BHNS binaries) are unique laboratories for studying both strongly-curved spacetime and supernuclear-density matter. They are potentially observable as gravitational wave chirps, gamma ray bursts, optical and radio afterglows, and optical kilonovae. The proper interpretation of these signals requires numerical simulations capturing all the most important physics; these simulations are thus important to multiple NSF and NASA-supported missions.

SpEC (the Spectral Einstein Code) is a code for high-accuracy numerical integration of the Einstein field equations. It is developed and used by groups at multiple institutions. At Cornell, I added hydrodynamics to SpEC to allow it to model neutron stars. My group at WSU has since helped add nuclear microphysics, sub-grid transport effects, magnetic fields, and neutrino transport to our simulations. We have explored NSNS and BHNS parameter space, contributed gravitational waveform predictions to aid detection techniques, and analyzed post-merger outflows and their nucleosynthesis. Recently, we have adapted SpEC for long-time 2D (axisymmetry) simulations and studied the late-time behavior of BHNS accretion disks. Other topics of past or current study include rapidly spinning newborn neutron stars, dynamo processes in black hole accretion disks, boundary conditions for the Einstein field equations, and exotic object alternatives to black holes.

Education

  • PhD in Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • BS in Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests

  • numerical relativity
  • astrophysical fluid dynamics
  • compact objects

Selected Publications

Google scholar (link)

  1. Numerical Relativity Multimodal Waveforms using Absorbing Boundary Conditions. Buchman, L. T., Duez, M. D., Morales, M., Scheel, M. A., Kostersitz, T. M. Evans, A. M., Mitman, K.. Classical and Quantum Gravity (2024) 41, 175011
  2. Late-time Post-merger Modeling of a Compact Binary: Effects of Relativity, R-process Heating, and Treatment of Transport Effects. Haddadi, M., Duez, M. D., Foucart, F., Ramirez, T., Fernandez, R., Knight, A.L., Jesse, J., Hebert, F., Kidder, L.E., Pfeiffer, H.A., Scheel, M.A., , Classical and Quantum Gravity (2023) 40, 085008
  3. A Comparison of Momentum Transport Models for Numerical Relativity. Duez, M. D., Knight, A.L., Foucart, F., Haddadi, M., Jesse J., Hebert, F., Kidder, L. E., Pfeiffer, H. P., Scheel, M. A., , Physical Review D (2020) 102, 104050
  4. Evolution of the Magnetized, Neutrino-Cooled Accretion Disk in the Aftermath of a Black Hole Neutron Star Binary Merger. Nouri, F. H., Duez, M. D., Foucart, F., Deaton, M.B., Haas, R., Haddadi, M., Kidder, L.E., Ott, C.D., Pfeiffer, H.P., Scheel, M.A., Szilagyi, B., , Physical Review D (2018) 97, 083014