SGER: Application of the Hilbert-Huang Transform to LIGO Data Analysis

该SGER为从事希尔伯特-黄变换(HHT)应用于激光干涉仪引力波天文台(LIGO)数据的博士后工作提供了一半的支持。这位博士后将与戈达德太空飞行中心的合作者乔丹·坎普博士密切合作。该项目将有两个主要领域：(1)将HHT应用于LIGO探测器的表征，以研究傅立叶或小波分析根本无法获得的详细程度的非线性和仪器瞬变效应。这包括开发HHT探测器表征软件及其在Pi教授Peter Shawhan监督的LIGO站点上的安装；(2)将HHT应用于短的调频波形的爆发检测搜索，例如黑洞二进制合并信号。美国国家航空航天局将共同支持与激光干涉仪空间天线(LISA)密切相关的研究。LIGO研究的一个重要领域是开发数据分析算法，以表征探测器噪声和搜索瞬时信号。数据分析工作迫在眉睫，因为LIGO现在正在进行一年的S5科学运行，完全在设计敏感性下运行。HHT是NASA/Goddard太空飞行中心最近开发的一种新的时频分析方法，专门针对瞬时、非线性信号的分析。HHT是自适应的，不会将数据分解成固定的基集，因此不受傅立叶分析或小波分析的时频不确定性关系特性的限制。因此，HHT可以提供非常高的引力波数据的时间和频率分辨率，从而在仪器特性和信号检测方面都产生了重大影响。

This SGER provides half the support for a postdoc to work on the application of the Hilbert-Huang Transform (HHT) to data for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The postdoc will work closely with co-PI Dr. Jordan Camp at the Goddard Space Flight Center. This project will have two main areas: (1) Application of the HHT to LIGO detector characterization to study nonlinear and instrumental transient effects at a level of detail that is fundamentally unavailable to Fourier or wavelet analysis. This includes development HHT detector characterization software and its installation at the LIGO sites supervised by PI Prof. Peter Shawhan; (2) Application of the HHT to the burst detection search for short, frequency modulated waveforms, such as the black hole binary merger signal. The postdoc supported half-time through this award will be co-supported by NASA for closely related research relevant to the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA).A vital area of LIGO research is the development of data analysis algorithms to characterize detector noise and search for transient signals. The data analysis effort is urgent as LIGO now undertakes the one year S5 science run at full design sensitivity. The HHT is a novel method of time-frequency analysis recently developed at NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center that is specifically targeted to the analysis of transient, non-linear signals. The HHT is adaptive and does not decompose data into a fixed basis set, and therefore it is not limited by the time-frequency uncertainty relation characteristic of Fourier or wavelet analysis. Thus the HHT can provide very high time and frequency resolution of gravitational wave data, leading to a significant impact in both instrumental characterization and signal detection.