Prof. Dr. M. Alessandra Papa

Leader of the permanent independent research group “Continuous Gravitational Waves”, Professor at Leibniz University Hannover

What is your current position at our institute?

I lead a permanent independent research group.

What is your academic education?

Laurea (Master) in Physics, U. Rome
PhD physics U. Rome

What were your previous academic positions?

Staff scientist MPI Potsdam (permanent)
Senior scientist UWM (permanent)
Senior scientist MPI Hannover (W2)
Centrally funded and permanent Independent-Research-Group (leader)
Professor Leibniz U. Hannover

Can you please summarize your research?

I try and detect continuous gravitational waves.

Do you have a favorite figure from a paper you co-authored?

Upper limits on the gravitational-wave amplitude h095% . The lower blue curve shows the results for this search (with the shaded area showing the 1σ confidence region), while the upper orange curve shows the S6 data results of Aasi et al. (2014), the only previous search covering this frequency range. — Upper limits on the gravitational-wave amplitude h₀^95% . The lower blue curve shows the results for this search (with the shaded area showing the 1σ confidence region), while the upper orange curve shows the S6 data results of Aasi et al. (2014), the only previous search covering this frequency range.

Upper limits on the gravitational-wave amplitude h₀^95% . The lower blue curve shows the results for this search (with the shaded area showing the 1σ confidence region), while the upper orange curve shows the S6 data results of Aasi et al. (2014), the only previous search covering this frequency range.

These are upper limits on the gravitational wave strain amplitude from a search for continuous gravitational-wave signals with frequencies between 300 and 500 Hertz emitted by neutron stars in binary systems with orbital periods between half a month and two months, published in “Constraints on r-modes and mountains on millisecond neutron stars in binary systems”. It is exciting to see how our searches begin to probe astrophysical interesting questions.

Why did you choose the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics for your research?

The excellence in research, the scientific environment, and the resources for research.

Read more about Prof. Papa's research on her group's webpage.