Eric Thrane

I'm an Associate Professor at Monash University in the School of Physics and Astronomy where I study cosmology, astrophysics, and gravity. I specialise in astrophysical inference using data from gravitational-wave observatories. I hold an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and I am the Data Theme Leader for OzGrav: the ARC Centre for Gravitational-wave Discovery. I am the OzGrav Node Leader for Monash University. Previously, I was a senior postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. From 2011-2017, I served as co-chair the LIGO stochastic data analysis group.

Office: 19 Rainforest Walk, #143A
Tel: 0399-020-393

Picture.

"Massai Red"

Curriculum Vitae
Physics Resources
An introduction to Bayesian inference
Links
internal LIGO Page
my google scholar page
my LIGO git wiki
my LIGO twiki
OzGrav Wiki
ezgw
moca seminars (internal)

Recent News

January, 2020: Thanks for the memory: measuring gravitational-wave memory in the first LIGO/Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog (Hubner, Talbot, Lasky, Thrane) accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D. The paper was also featured in an article on space.com.

January, 2020: On the origin of GW190425 (Romero-Shaw, Farrow, Stevenson, Thrane, Zhu), posted on the arxiv.

January, 2020: GW190425: Observation of a Compact Binary Coalescence with Total Mass 3.4 M_☉ (LIGO/Virgo)

December, 2019: Gravitational-wave inference in the catalog era: evolving priors and marginal events (Galaudage, Talbot, Thrane) posted on the arxiv.

December, 2019: Ground-Based Gravitational-Wave Astronomy in Australia: 2019 White Paper (Bailes et al.) posted on the arxiv.

December, 2019: Higher order gravitational-wave modes with likelihood reweighting (Payne, Talbot, Thrane) published in Phys. Rev. D.

December, 2019: Gravitational wave detection without boot straps: a Bayesian approach (Ashton, Thrane, Smith) published in Phys. Rev. D.

November, 2019: Measuring the neutron star equation of state with gravitational waves: the first forty binary neutron star mergers (Hernandez Vivanco, Smith, Thrane, Lasky, Talbot, Raymond) published in Phys. Rev. D.

November, 2019: Searching for Eccentricity: Signatures of Dynamical Formation in the First Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalogue of LIGO and Virgo (Romero-Shaw, Lasky, Thrane) published in MNRAS.

November, 2019: Memory Effect or Cosmic String? Classifying Gravitational-Wave Bursts with Bayesian Inference (Divakarla, Thrane, Lasky, Whiting) posted on the arxiv.

November, 2019: Constraining short gamma-ray burst jet properties with gravitational waves and gamma rays (Biscoveanu, Thrane, Salvatore Vitale) posted on the arxiv.

October, 2019: Ultra-relativistic astrophysics using multi-messenger observations of double neutron stars with LISA and the SKA (Thrane, Osłowski, Lasky) posted on the arxiv.

October, 2019: Is there a spectral turnover in the spin noise of millisecond pulsars? (Goncharov, Zhu, Thrane) posted on the arxiv.

September, 2019: Binary Black Hole Population Properties Inferred from the First and Second Observing Runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo published in Astrophys. J. Lett.

September, 2019: Parallelized Inference for Gravitational-Wave Astronomy (Talbot, Smith, Thrane, Poole) published in Phys Rev D.

September, 2019: GWTC-1: A Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog of Compact Binary Mergers Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First and Second Observing Runs published in Phys. Rev. X.

August, 2019: Accelerated detection of the binary neutron star gravitational-wave background (Hernandez Vivanco, Smith, Thrane, and Lasky) published in Phys Rev D.

May, 2019: Exploring the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors to neutron star physics (Martynov et al.) published in Phys Rev D.

May, 2019: We've detected new gravitational waves, we just don't know where they come from (yet) with Tara Murphy and Qi Chu.

April, 2019: The mass distribution of Galactic double neutron stars (Farrow, Zhu, and Thrane) published in The Astrophys. J.

March, 2019: Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves using data from Advanced LIGO's first two observing runs posted on the arxiv.

March, 2019: An introduction to Bayesian inference in gravitational-wave astronomy: parameter estimation, model selection, and hierarchical models (Thrane and Talbot) published in PASA.

February, 2019: I appeared in The Black Hole Hunters produced by ABC Catalyst alongside fellow OzGrav members, David Blair and Carl Blair, with host, Tamara Davis.

February, 2019: Bilby: A user-friendly Bayesian inference library for gravitational-wave astronomy (Ashton, et al.) accepted in the Astrophys. J. Supp.

December, 2018: Filming for an upcoming program on black holes next to the OzStar computer.

(Credit: Amy Sherden)

November, 2018: The minimum and maximum gravitational-wave background from supermassive binary black holes (Zhu, Cui, and Thrane) published in MNRAS.

November, 2018: Measuring eccentricity in binary black hole inspirals with gravitational waves (Lower, Thrane, Lasky, and Smith) published in Phys Rev D.

September, 2018: Gravitational-wave memory: waveforms and phenomenology (Talbot, Thrane, Lasky, and Lin) published in Phys Rev D.

August, 2018: An all-sky radiometer for narrowband gravitational waves using folded data (Goncharov and Thrane) accepted in Phys Rev D.

July, 2018: Inferring the population properties of binary neutron stars with gravitational-wave measurements of spin (Zhu, Thrane, Osłowski, Levin, and Lasky) published in Phys. Rev. D.

June, 2018: The cosmic gravitational wave symphony | Sylvia Biscoveanu.

May, 2018: A Search for Tensor, Vector, and Scalar Polarizations in the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background published in Phys Rev Lett.

April, 2018: The optimal search for an astrophysical gravitational-wave background (Smith and Thrane) published in Phys. Rev. X. See also: Viewpoint: Listening for the Cosmic Hum of Black Holes.

April, 2018: Australian scientists pioneer new way to hear black holes colliding across the universe with Sylvia Biscoveanu and Rory Smith (credit: ABC).

Here's what two black holes smashing into each other sounds like (credit: The Age)

April, 2018: Measuring the binary black hole mass spectrum with an astrophysically motivated parameterization (Talbot and Thrane) published in ApJ.

April, 2018: Filming for an upcoming media release at the new OzStar supercomputer with Rory Smith and Sylvia Biscoveanu (credit: Yeshe Fenner).

March, 2018: Gravitational waves attract US talent with Sylvia Biscoveanu.

December, 2017: Tests of General Relativity with the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background (Callister et al.) published in Phys. Rev X.

October, 2017: Challenges testing the no-hair theorem with gravitational waves (Thrane, Lasky, & Levin) accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D.

October, 2017: GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral, A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant, Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A, GW170817: Implications for the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background from Compact Binary Coalescences, Search for post-merger gravitational waves from the remnant of the binary neutron star merger GW170817.

October, 2017: Nobel Prize in Physics: Australians helped in gravitational waves research + An award with real gravity: how gravitational waves attracted a Nobel Prize with Yuri Levin and Paul Lasky. The Monash gravity team celebrates the 2017 Nobel Prize for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves...with cake (credit: Steve Morton).

July, 2017: Determining the population properties of spinning black holes (Talbot & Thrane) published in Phys. Rev. D.

July, 2017: Team OzGrav in official hoodies (credit: Agustin Schiffrin).

June, 2017: Posing with a Permian mesosaurus (credit: Steve Morton).

May, 2017: Gravitational waves detected from GW1710104: press release, "A new discovery of gravitational waves has black holes in a spin".

May, 2017: Gravitational Waves from Orphan Memory (McNeill, Thrane, Lasky) published in Phys. Rev. Lett. See also this popular science articles in New Scientist, Science Alert, Eureka Alert, and Gizmodo.

April, 2017: Suspending test masses in terrestrial millihertz gravitational-wave detectors: a case study with a magnetic assisted torsion pendulum (Thrane, Anderson, Levin, Turner) published in Class. Quant. Grav.

April, 2017: Validating gravitational-wave detections: The Advanced LIGO hardware injection system (Biwer et al.) published in Phys. Rev. D.

March, 2017: Upper Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background from Advanced LIGO's First Observing Run (LIGO/Virgo) and Directional limits on persistent gravitational waves from Advanced LIGO's first observing run (LIGO/Virgo) published for publication in PRL: isotropcic, directional.

November, 2016: Gravitational waves featured on "Beyond the Lab" (featuring yours truly and Janna Levin among others).

October, 2016: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astrophysics: new OzGrav positions open at Monash.

October, 2016: "Subtraction of correlated noise in global networks of gravitational-wave interferometers" (with Coughlin et al.) published in CQG.

September 2016: I am delighted to be part of The ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)! Established at the Swinburne University of Technology, OzGrav will explore the extreme physics of black holes and warped spacetime, inspiring the next generation of Australian scientists and engineers. Researchers at this Centre, led by Professor Matthew Bailes, will build on decades of Australian investment in gravitational wave and pulsar science, coalescing research activities into a focused national programme.

August 2016: Detecting gravitational-wave memory with LIGO: implications of GW150914 (P D Lasky, E Thrane, Y Levin, J Blackman, and Y Chen) published as an Editors' Suggestion in Phys. Rev. Lett.

August, 2016: "The limits of astrophysics with gravitational wave backgrounds" (with Callister et al.) published in Phys. Rev X.

June, 2016: Chris Whittle featured in The Australian (pay wall).

June, 2016: "Astronomers excited by 2nd gravitational wave discovery" on ABC News Breakfast.

June, 2016: LIGO observes another binary black hole: "GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence." Read Paul Lasky's take on the discovery in The Conversation.

May, 2016: nomination photo for a Faculty of Science teaching award with Theo Hughes, Michael Morgan, and Jasmina Lazendic-Galloway.

May, 2016: ARC interview for OzGrav: Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (with Daniel Shaddock, David McClelland, Matthew Bailes, Susan Scott, Peter Veitch, Aleksander Subic, and Tania Bezzobs.

May, 2016: I am proud to share the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with my LIGO-Virgo colleagues!

April, 2016: Congratulations, Dr Letizia Sammut!

February, 2016: "Gravitational wave discovered" (a public talk with Yuri Levin).

February, 2016: "Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger." LIGO detects gravitational waves. The Monash LIGO team is featured in the Sydney Morning Herald. ("Einstein GW150914" by Brynley Pearlston.)

See also: "GW150914: Implications for the stochastic gravitational wave background from binary black holes" published in Phys. Rev. Lett. For some lighter media coverage of GW150914, here's my cameo on The Project.

December, 2015: I have been awarded a 2015 Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council for "Gravitational-wave astronomy: detection and beyond."

December, 2015: "Detectability of gravitational waves from high-redshift binaries" (Rosado et al.) published in Phys. Rev. Lett.

November, 2015: "Gravitational-wave cosmology across 29 decades in frequency" (with Lasky et al.) published in Phys. Rev. X.

November, 2015: A busy month for physics media! I appeared with Paul Lasky on The Science Show with Robyn Williams. Later in the month, I appeared on Catalyst to speak about gravitational waves.

October, 2015: "Detecting gravitational-wave transients at five sigma: a hierarchical approach" (Thrane and Coughlin) published in Phys. Rev. Lett.

October, 2015: Takaaki Kajita wins the Nobel Prize in Physics.

October, 2015: Gravitational waves on Science Cafe: my appearance on the Young Scientists of Australia podcast.

September, 2015: Mock data and science challenge for detecting an astrophysical stochastic gravitational-wave background with Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo published in Phys. Rev. D.

July, 2015: Open Day at Monash (credit: Steve Morton)!

June, 2015: LIGO S6 data is publicly available here.

June, 2015: "Gravitational wave explorer seeks light of merging dead stars" appears in Monash Memo.

June, 2015: All-sky, narrowband, gravitational-wave radiometry with folded data (Thrane, Mitra, Christensen, Mandic, and Ain) published in Phys. Rev. D.

May, 2015: Cool picture taken as I was leaving the Physics & Astronomy building (credit: Steve Morton):

May, 2015: Detecting very long-lived gravitational-wave transients lasting hours to weeks (Thrane, Mandic, and Christensen) published in Phys. Rev. D.

March, 2015: The detectability of eccentric compact binary coalescences with advanced gravitational-wave detectors (M Coughlin, P Meyers, E Thrane, J Luo, and N Christensen) published in Phys. Rev. D.

February, 2015: Searching for stochastic gravitational waves using data from the two co-located LIGO Hanford detectors (LIGO & Virgo) is to be featured as part of the Phys. Rev. D Kaleidoscope.

January, 2015: I have joined the Physics faculty at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

More About Me

Before coming to Monash, I was first, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Minnesota working with Prof Vuk Mandic and then, a senior postdoctoral scholar at Caltech where I worked in Alan Weinstein's group. My research interests include gravitational waves, astrophysics, cosmology, neutrinos, and particle physics. I received my PhD in 2008 from the University of Washington where I studied astrophysical neutrino point sources with Super-Kamiokande under the supervision of Prof R. Jeffrey Wilkes. I received my BS in 2003 from the University of Michigan where I worked for CDF and on the development of flat electron beams for use in the proposed ILC.

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