Realizing gravitational-wave astronomy through low-latency searches for binary black hole mergers with a network of high-precision gravitational-wave interferometers

通过高精度引力波干涉仪网络低延迟搜索双黑洞合并来实现引力波天文学

• 批准号: 0855679
• 负责人: Sukanta Bose
• 金额: $ 49.5万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-15 至 2012-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0855679&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Realizing; gravitational; wave; astronomy; through

Current understanding of coalescing binary black holes and neutron stars suggests that Advanced LIGO (AdvLIGO) should detect somewhere between a few to several of these systems per year, thus, ushering in the age of gravitational-wave astronomy. Some of these systems are expected to be visible to electromagnetic observatories as well. Smart hardware and software tools will be developed so that an astrophysical signal observed in AdvLIGO and the advanced Virgo detector can be followed-up rapidly by pointing the electromagnetic observatories at its source, while it is still active. The complete characteristics of the signal, as made available recently through a combination of analytical solutions and numerical-relativity breakthroughs, will be used in the search for these binaries.Together, these multi-messenger observations, which use complementary gravitational-wave and electromagnetic data, promise to resolve some outstanding puzzles in astronomy, such as the origin of the short duration gamma-ray bursts and the nature of dark energy. This quest will be aided by the establishment of an experimental effort at the main campus of the Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, and could foster the growth of Physics and Astronomy education at WSU-Tri-Cities (WSU-TC), located near the site of the LIGO Hanford Observatory. That campus community has a large Hispanic population with nearby Native American communities. The co-placement of LIGO and WSU-TC in this community offers a rare setting for integrating university education with cutting edge research.

目前对合并的双黑洞和中子星的理解表明，高级LIGO（AdvLIGO）每年应该检测到几个到几个这样的系统，从而迎来引力波天文学的时代。其中一些系统预计也可以被电磁观测站看到。将开发智能硬件和软件工具，以便在AdvLIGO和先进的Virgo探测器中观测到的天体物理信号仍在运行时，通过将电磁观测台指向信号源，迅速跟踪信号。最近通过结合解析解和数值相对论的突破而获得的信号的完整特征，将用于寻找这些双星。这些多信使观测，使用互补的引力波和电磁数据，有望解决天文学中的一些突出难题，例如短持续时间伽马射线暴的起源和暗能量的性质。这一探索将通过在普尔曼的华盛顿州立大学（WSU）主校区建立一个实验项目来帮助，并可以促进位于LIGO汉福德天文台附近的WSU-Tri-Cities（WSU-TC）的物理学和天文学教育的发展。该校园社区有大量的西班牙裔人口，附近有美洲原住民社区。LIGO和WSU-TC在该社区的共同安置为将大学教育与尖端研究相结合提供了难得的环境。