Instrument Development and Data Analysis in LIGO

激光干涉仪引力波观测站(LIGO)由路易斯安那州利文斯顿和华盛顿州汉福德的4公里基线探测器和汉福德的另外2公里探测器组成。LIGO的工作原理是使用精密激光干涉术来测量地震隔离测试质量镜的相对运动，这是由于遥远的天体物理事件发出的引力波(GW)产生的极小的力。路易斯安那州立大学(LSU)距离LIGO利文斯顿天文台(LLO)约40公里，作为LIGO科学合作的成员，与LIGO有着长期的合作关系。LSU小组主要参与探测器特性小组、校准委员会以及从合并的二进制紧凑系统中搜索引力波的小组，以及与波形无关的脉冲信号搜索小组。在广泛的背景下，资助的活动涉及路易斯安那州立大学的教职员工、博士后、研究生和LIGO的本科生，为路易斯安那州立大学的人们带来了与经验丰富的LIGO和LIGO科学合作(LSC)科学家合作的好处，以及使用允许重大科学发现的极好可能性的仪器。路易斯安那州立大学共享图书馆、网络设施和研讨会。LIGO人员参加路易斯安那州立大学物理和天文学系的座谈会和天体物理学讨论小组，并经常与学生直接合作。与附近研究型大学的密切和广泛的关系对LLO的这种影响预计将随着持续的合作而得到加强。具体地说，该奖项提供资金用于(1)表征将在2009-2010年使用增强型探测器(S6科学运行)获取的LIGO数据，监测噪声特性和短时瞬变；(2)继续为探测器校准小组提供贡献，用于使用增强型LIGO校准S6中的数据，开发方法以提高校准的精度和对影响校准的系统变化的及时监测；(3)搜索将在S6中获取的LIGO数据，用于激励致密物体和未建模的爆发源；(4)通过参与增强型LIGO的光学读出和隔震系统的调试和性能研究，为降低高级LIGO升级的技术风险做出贡献。

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) consists of 4 km baseline detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, and an additional 2 km detector in Hanford. LIGO's operating principle is to use precision laser interferometry to measure the relative motion of seismically-isolated test mass mirrors due to the extremely small forces from gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by distant astrophysical events. Louisiana State University (LSU) is located approximately 40 km from LIGO Livingston Observatory (LLO) and has a long-term collaborative relationship with LIGO as a member of the LIGO Scientic Collaboration. The LSU group is heavily involved in the Detector Characterization group, the Calibration Committee, and the groups searching for gravitational waves from Coalescing Binary Compact systems, and for waveform-independent searches for Burst signals. In a broad context, the funded activities involve LSU faculty, postdocs, graduate students and undergraduates at LIGO, bringing LSU people the benefits of working with experienced LIGO and LIGO Scientic Collaboration (LSC) scientists, and with apparatus that allows an excellent possibility of signicant scientic discovery. LSU shares its libraries, networking facilities, and workshops. LIGO personnel participate in the LSU Physics and Astronomy departments' colloquia and astrophysics discussion groups, and often work directly with students. This impact on LLO, a close and extensive relationship with a nearby research university, is expected to be strengthened with continued collaboration.Specifically, this award provides funds to(1) Characterize LIGO data to be taken in 2009-2010 with Enhanced Detectors (S6 science run), monitoring the noise characteristics and short transients; (2) Continue contributions to the detector calibration team for the calibration of data in S6 with Enhanced LIGO, developing methods to improve the precision of the calibration and the monitoring of systems changes in time that affect calibration; (3) Search the LIGO data to be taken in S6 for inspiraling compact objects, and for unmodeled burst sources; (4) Contribute to reducing the technological risk in the Advanced LIGO upgrade by participating in the commissioning, and performance studies of optical readout and seismic isolation systems in Enhanced LIGO.