Radio telescopes and gravitational-wave observatories: Two windows on the same Universe

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Over the past few decades, radio astronomy has replaced our serene, optical view of stars and galaxies with a more dynamic one of exotic objects and violent phenomena. Today we are on the verge of another revolution in astronomy, as a new generation of observatories prepare to make the first detections of an entirely new spectrum of radiation: gravitational waves. This project will advance the fields of both radio and gravitational-wave astronomy through a series of coordinated observations between the world's largest radio observatories (the Arecibo and Green Bank radio telescopes), and the most sensitive gravitational-wave observatories (the LIGO and Virgo detectors). One component of the project is to perform detailed radio measurements of exotic compact rapidly-spinning stars known as radio pulsars. A second component would be to perform rapid radio follow-up observations of any detected bursts of gravitational radiation, such as might accompany the collisions of compact stars and black holes.By obtaining precise data on known radio sources that may also be gravitational sources, one can dramatically increase the sensitivity of gravitational-wave searches targeting these objects. Meanwhile, if a putative gravitational-wave burst is accompanied by radio emissions, this will significantly improve confidence in the reality of these early gravitational-wave detections. Both types of observation will hasten the advent of gravitational-wave astronomy, giving complementary views of some of the strangest phenomena in the Universe. These observations will be performed by a specially-trained cadre of student observers recruited from the Lower Rio Grande Valley, providing unprecedented educational and technical opportunities to the academically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged community of this region.