Multimessenger astronomy through gravitational-waves

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。在爱因斯坦的广义相对论问世近百年后，引力波被视为最有趣但仍然难以捉摸的天体物理现象之一。预计它们是由极端的天体物理源发射的，如合并的黑洞双星系统，旋转的中子星，伽马射线爆发或超新星。探测和天体物理学研究都需要精密调谐的引力波望远镜。该奖项将使哥伦比亚实验重力小组的成员能够参与提高LIGO引力波探测器性能的活动。小组成员将专注于直接影响LIGO科学合作组织搜索宇宙引力波灵敏度的关键任务活动，如探测器诊断和校准。一个良好表征和精确校准的检测器反过来可以使数据分析师执行搜索，看得更远，看得更多，产生更少的假警报，并从未来的可能检测中提取更多信息。从高中到研究生水平的学生将有机会参与这项研究。此外，哥伦比亚大学的城市环境和现有的外展基础设施将使独特的教育和外展活动的基础上，这项研究的目标学校不仅在当地社区，而且在更大的纽约市大都市区。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Nearly hundred years after the debut of Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravitational waves are viewed as one of the most intriguing but still elusive astrophysical phenomena. They are expected to be emitted by extreme astrophysical sources such as merging black hole binary systems, spinning neutron stars, gamma-ray bursts or supernovae. Superb and finely tuned gravitational-wave telescopes are required for detection and astrophysics investigations. This award will enable members of the Columbia Experimental Gravity group to participate in activities to improve the performance of the LIGO gravitational wave detectors. Group members will focus on mission-critical activities directly affecting the sensitivity of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration's searches for cosmic gravitational waves such as detector diagnostics and calibration. A well characterized and precisely calibrated detector in turn could enable the data analysts to execute searches that see farther, see more, produce fewer false alarms and extract more information from plausible future detections. Students from high school through graduate level will have the opportunity to participate in this research. In addition, the urban setting and existing outreach infrastructure of Columbia University will enable unique educational and outreach activities based on this research that target schools not only in the local community but also in the greater New York City metropolitan area.