Gravitational Radiation

理论和计算研究将用于支持LIGO项目，该项目由美国国家科学基金会（nsf）资助，计划在1999年之前建立一个基于激光干涉测量法的两点引力波探测系统，此后不久将用于探测引力波，并开始将其用于物理和天文学研究。索恩将继续担任LIGO与理论天体物理学和相对论团体之间的联络人。在这个职位上，他有责任确保需要为LIGO工作的理论问题由他自己的研究小组或相对论或天体物理理论团体的其他成员处理，并且这些团体的见解和贡献转化为LIGO项目可用的形式。索恩的团队将通过理论分析，对LIGO的设计问题做出贡献，尤其是对LIGO真空管中散射激光噪声抑制挡板的最终设计。他们还将致力于设计和理论分析先进的干涉仪，这些干涉仪可以在2000年代中期或以后在LIGO中运行。索恩和他的团队将在这个奖项的四年中处理以下问题：他们将开发和实现在LIGO数据中搜索引力波信号的数值算法，并从检测到的信号中提取信息。最大的努力将放在搜索和分析算法上，以激发和合并紧凑的双星（由中子星和/或黑洞组成的双星系统）。这些算法将基于：(i)理论激励波形，（ii）理论黑洞合并波形，以及（iii）理论中子星合并波形。搜索和分析算法也将用于超新星、周期性引力波源（如脉冲星）、随机引力波背景（如来自大爆炸）和意外类型的源（如非黑洞或中子星的大质量、致密物体）。

Theoretical and computational research will be carried out in support of the LIGO Project--an NSF-funded effort to construct by 1999 a two-site gravitational wave detection system based on laser interferometry, and soon thereafter to detect gravitational waves and begin using them for physics and astronomy research. Thorne will continue his longtime role as the liaison between LIGO and the theoretical astrophysics and relativity communities. In this role, he has the responsibility to ensure that theoretical issues which need to be worked for LIGO get dealt with by his own research group or by other members of the relativity or astrophysical theory communities, and that the insights and contributions of those communities are translated into forms usable by the LIGO Project. Thorne's group will contribute, via theoretical analyses, to LIGO design issues, most especially the final design of the baffles that suppress noise from scattered laser light in the LIGO vacuum tubes. They will also devote effort to the design and theoretical analysis of advanced interferometers that could operate in LIGO in the mid 2000s or later. Among the issues that Thorne and his group will deal with during the four years of this award are these: They will develop and implement numerical algorithms for searching for gravitational-wave signals in the LIGO data, and for extracting information from detected signals. The greatest effort will go into search and analysis algorithms for inspiraling and coalescing compact binaries (binary systems made from neutron stars and/or black holes). These algorithms will be based on: (i) theoretical inspiral waveforms, (ii) theoretical black-hole coalescence waveforms, and (iii) theoretical neutron-star coalescence waveforms. Search and analysis algorithms will also be developed for supernovae, periodic gravitational-wave sources (e.g., pulsars), stochastic gravitational-wave background (e.g., from the big bang), and unexpected types of s ources (e.g., massive, compact objects that are not black holes or neutron stars).