Photo of Jolien Creighton

Jolien Creighton

  • Professor, Physics

Research Interests

In Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, gravity is described in terms of geometry: the distances between points in space and time. Gravitational waves—oscillating gravitational fields that affect the distances between nearby points—are produced by the most violent events in our universe including supernovae, collisions of black holes, and the big bang.

The Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO, is a US national facility observing gravitational waves as part of a worldwide network of detectors—the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA collaobration. Creighton participates in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration in this international effort that observes gravitational waves from the distant universe.

Biographical Sketch

Jolien Creighton obtained a BSc in Physics at the University of Calgary in 1992. He did his graduate work at the University of Waterloo, where he received his PhD in 1996. After earning his PhD, Creighton spent three years at the California Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral scholar. In 1999, he came to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to work as a research associate. In 2002 Professor Creighton joined the faculty, in 2007 he became an Associate Professor, and as of 2013 holds the rank of Professor.

Selected Publications

Creighton, Jolien D., and Anderson, Warren G.Gravitational Wave Physics and AstronomyWeinheim: Wiley-VCH. .
LIGO Scientific Collaboration, , Brady, Patrick R., Creighton, Jolien D., and De Arcenegui Siemens, F. J.“Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger” Astrophys. J848.2 (2017): L12.
Chamberlin, Sydney, Creighton, Jolien D., De Arcenegui Siemens, F. J., Demorest, Paul, Ellis, Justin, Price, Larry R., and Romano, Joseph D.“Time-domain implementation of the optimal cross-correlation statistic for stochastic gravitational-wave background searches in pulsar timing data” Physical Review D91. (2015): 044048.
Wade, Leslie, Creighton, Jolien D., Ochsner, Evan, Lackey, Benjamin D., Farr, Benjamin F., Littenberg, Tyson B., and Raymond, Vivien. “Systematic and statistical errors in a bayesian approach to the estimation of the neutron-star equation of state using advanced gravitational wave detectors” Physical Review D89. (2014): 103012.
Read, Jocelyn S., Baiotti, Luca, Creighton, Jolien D., Friedman, John L., Giacomazzo, Bruno, Kyutoku, Koutarou, Markakis, Charalampos, Rezzolla, Lucianno, and Shibata, Masaru. “Matter effects on binary neutron star waveforms” Physical Review D88. (2013): 044042.
Allen, Bruce, Anderson, Warren G., Brady, Patrick R., Brown, Duncan A., and Creighton, Jolien D.“FINDCHIRP: an algorithm for detection of gravitational waves” Physical Review D85. (2012): 122006.
Biswas, Rahul, 2, , Brady, Patrick R., Creighton, Jolien D., and Fairhurst, Stephen. “The Loudest event statistic: General formulation,properties and applications” Class.Quant.Grav26. (2009): 175009.
De Arcenegui Siemens, F. J., Creighton, Jolien D., Maor, Irit, Ray Majumder, Saikat, Cannon, Kipp, and others, . “Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings:Quantitative analysis and constraints” Phys.RevD73. (2006): 105001.
De Arcenegui Siemens, F. J., Allen, Bruce, Creighton, Jolien D., Hewitson, Martin, and Landry, Michael. “Making h(t) for LIGO” Class.Quant.Grav21. (2004): S1723-S1736.
Brady, Patrick R., Creighton, Jolien D., and Wiseman, Alan G.“Upper limits on gravitational-wave signals based onloudest events” Class.Quant.Grav21. (2004): S1775-S1782.
Anderson, Warren G., Brady, Patrick R., Creighton, Jolien D., and Flanagan, Eanna E.“An Excess power statistic for detection of burst sourcesof gravitational radiation” Phys.RevD63. (2001): 042003.
Allen, Bruce, Blackburn, K., Brady, Patrick R., Creighton, Jolien D., Creighton, T., and others, . “Observational limit on gravitational waves from binaryneutron stars in the galaxy” Phys.Rev.Lett83. (1999): 1498.
Brown, J. D., Creighton, Jolien D., and Mann, Robert B.“Temperature, energy and heat capacity of asymptoticallyanti-de Sitter black holes” Phys.RevD50. (1994): 6394-6403.

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.