Dr. Keith Riles

Biography

Keith Riles is the H. Richard Crane Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan. He specializes in experimental cosmology and astrophysics, focusing on the fundamental forces of nature and elementary particle physics. Riles is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), which made headlines in September 2015 when it discovered gravitational waves from the merger of massive black holes. The project is a $300 million effort led by Caltech and MIT, utilizing 4-km Michelson laser interferometers located at sites in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, designed to measure minute disturbances in space with a precision exceeding 1 part in a billion trillion (10^-21). His research group has placed upper limits on longer-lived, weaker gravitational waves emitted by unknown, rapidly spinning neutron stars in our Milky Way. They utilize algorithms such as PowerFlux and TwoSpect for searches involving gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars and binary neutron stars, respectively. Riles' team has also conducted extensive work on LIGO detector characterization, calibration, and commissioning. In recent years, he has explored the physics and potential requirements for a future linear electron-positron collider with a center-of-mass energy of 350 GeV or higher.

Research Interests