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

射电望远镜和引力波天文台：同一宇宙的两个窗口

• 批准号: 0855432
• 负责人: Teviet Creighton
• 金额: $ 8万
• 依托单位: The University of Texas at Brownsville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0855432&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Radio; telescopes; gravitational; wave; observatories

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.

该奖项根据 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）提供资金。 在过去的几十年里，射电天文学已经取代了我们对恒星和星系的平静的光学观点，取而代之的是一种更加动态的奇异物体和暴力现象。今天，我们正处于天文学的另一场革命的边缘，新一代天文台正准备首次探测全新的辐射光谱：引力波。该项目将通过世界上最大的射电天文台（阿雷西博射电望远镜和格林班克射电望远镜）和最灵敏的引力波天文台（LIGO 和 Virgo 探测器）之间的一系列协调观测，推动射电和引力波天文学领域的发展。 该项目的组成部分之一是对被称为射电脉冲星的奇异致密快速旋转恒星进行详细的射电测量。 第二个组成部分是对任何检测到的引力辐射爆发进行快速无线电跟踪观测，例如可能伴随致密恒星和黑洞碰撞的引力辐射爆发。通过获取已知无线电源（也可能是引力源）的精确数据，可以显着提高针对这些物体的引力波搜索的灵敏度。 同时，如果假定的引力波爆发伴随着无线电发射，这将显着提高人们对这些早期引力波探测的真实性的信心。 这两种类型的观测都将加速引力波天文学的出现，为宇宙中一些最奇怪的现象提供互补的观点。这些观察将由从下里奥格兰德河谷招募的经过专门培训的学生观察员骨干进行，为该地区学术代表性不足和经济弱势群体提供前所未有的教育和技术机会。