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。在爱因斯坦提出广义相对论近一百年后，引力波被视为最有趣但仍难以捉摸的天体物理现象之一。它们被认为是由极端的天体物理源发出的，比如合并的黑洞双星系统、旋转的中子星、伽马射线暴或超新星。在探测和天体物理学研究中，需要极好的、微调好的引力波望远镜。该奖项将使哥伦比亚实验重力小组的成员能够参与改善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科学合作组织对宇宙引力波搜索灵敏度的关键任务活动，如探测器诊断和校准。一个具有良好特征和精确校准的探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，并从可信的未来检测中提取更多信息。从高中到研究生阶段的学生都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基于本研究的独特教育和外展活动成为可能，这些活动不仅针对当地社区的学校，还针对纽约大都会地区的学校。

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.