GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE ASTRONOMY WITH BINARY COMPACT OBJECTS: SOURCE MODELING AND LIGO DATA ANALYSIS

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This award supports research within the framework of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) and the Compact Binary Coalescence (CBC) analysis group. It includes projects in the area of astrophysical interpretation of gravitational-wave signals from binaries with two compact objects, through both gravitational-wave data analysis and source modeling. Effectively the proposed work focuses on developing a concrete framework and a tool-kit for the processing of CBC detections (or upper limits) in order to extract the maximal available astrophysical information for binaries with compact objects with any mass and spin configuration. The research activity focuses on a number of key questions the answers to which are important for the interpretation of current and future gravitational-wave observations with LIGO. The next few years are very important for the development of gravitational-wave physics and its astronomical interpretation, and this research focuses on ways of maximizing the gain from future detections, but also from upper limits expected to constrain current theories of compact-object formation. This research is of interest to the broader community of compact-object astrophysics in a wide range of contexts: e.g., stellar and binary system evolution, neutron star and black hole formation and evolution, gamma-ray bursts, stellar dynamics of globular clusters and galactic centers, as in the coming years LIGO observations can provide uniquely reliable answers to some of the long-standing questions in astronomy and astrophysics. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo computational tools to be developed in this project will be made available within and outside the LSC, and hence can benefit LSC projects beyond the CBC searches and enhance the research infrastructure for parameter-estimation in other scientific and engineering contexts. Outreach activities take advantage of the existing collaboration with the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum with hundreds of thousands of visitors per year; this connection ensures the broad dissemination of research understanding in the diverse, urban environment of the Chicago metropolitan area.