LIGO Observations and Gravitational Wave Astronomy

该奖项通过开发和实施先进的LIGO探测器所需的先进分析技术来支持引力波探测的目标。正在开发的具体分析技术提供了对给定的多探测器引力波数据集包括探测器对引力波爆发的响应的概率的定量和有物理意义的测量；能够根据引力波信号推断意外引力波源的性质；并允许对其位置不确定性包括很大一部分天体的数据进行定量分析。所采用的方法包括贝叶斯统计分析和模型选择、蒙特卡罗抽样和核密度估计方法，以及通过有限非线性网络对非线性系统进行建模。引力波的探测将标志着天文学和天体物理学编年史以及我们对引力的实验理解的新篇章的开始。自从伽利略第一次将望远镜对准天空以来，还没有机会以如此新的、从根本上不同的方式来看待宇宙。这项工作的目标是使用LIGO探测器实现引力波探测，并将LIGO观测作为一种强大的天文发现和基础物理探测的新工具。作为科学发现和成就的前沿，LIGO企业激发和激励学生追求物理和天文事业，并激发非专业公众的想象力和兴趣。通过它对该企业的直接贡献，这具有广泛和历史性的影响。该项目培养一名博士后学者和一名研究生，从事前沿跨学科科学研究。根据该奖项开发的分析方法的适用性从LIGO延伸到其他引力波探测实验(例如，激光干涉仪空间天线或脉冲星定时阵列观测)，并超越引力波探测，延伸到其他科学领域和需要对微弱或分辨率较差的信号进行推断的其他科学领域(例如，俄歇宇宙射线观测)。

This award supports the goal of gravitational wave detection through the development and implementation of advanced analysis techniques needed by the advanced LIGO detectors. Specific analysis techniques being developed provide quantitative and physically meaningful measures of the odds that a given multi-detector gravitational wave data set includes the detector response to a gravitational wave burst; enable inference of the properties of an unanticipated gravitational wave source from its gravitational wave signal; and allow quantitative analyses to be carried out on data whose positional uncertainty includes a large fraction of the celestial sphere. Methods employed include Bayesian statistical analysis and model selection, Monte Carlo sampling and kernel density estimation methods, and the modeling of non-linear systems through finite non-linear networks. Gravitational wave detection will mark the beginning of a new chapter in the annals of astronomy and astrophysics, and in our experimental understanding of gravity. Not since Galileo first turned a telescope to the heavens has the opportunity existed to view the cosmos in such a new and fundamentally different way. This work's goal is to enable gravitational wave detection using the LIGO detectors and exploit LIGO observations as a formidable new tool of astronomical discovery and a probe of fundamental physics. As a frontier of scientific discovery and accomplishment, the LIGO enterprise excites and motivates students to pursue careers in physics and astronomy, and captures the imagination and interest of the lay public. Through its direct contribution to that enterprise this has broad and historic impact. This project trains a postdoctoral scholar and a graduate student in frontier interdisciplinary science. The analysis methods developed under this award have applicability that extends beyond LIGO to other gravitational wave detection experiments (e.g., the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna or pulsar timing array observations), and beyond gravitational wave detection to other areas of science and beyond where inference need to be drawn on weak or poorly resolved signals (e.g., Auger cosmic-ray observations).