A Search for Gravitational Radiation at LIGO: Oregon Experimental Relativity Group

俄勒冈州小组将继续在LIGO科学合作组织（LSC）内为发现引力波（GW）而努力。该方案将在俄勒冈州发展了重要的专业知识和编制了成功的成就记录的两个领域进行。首先是探测器表征和探测优化：随着初始LIGO（iLIGO）时代的结束和高级LIGO（aLIGO）时代的到来，所吸取的经验教训将应用于aLIGO仪器和aLIGO科学计划。具体来说，我们将通过测量（分析监测仪器的数据）和软件开发来了解环境噪声与LIGO干涉仪的耦合机制，以更好地识别在iLIGO中引起麻烦的噪声瞬态的微妙机制。第二个是数据分析，特别是在开发与天体物理触发器相关的GW瞬变搜索，如伽马射线爆发（GRB）或超新星。开发和完善这些搜索的一个重要动机是学习如何最好地将其他天文观测与LIGO的观测相结合，这是我们在iLIGO中帮助开创的触发GRB搜索。推进这一发展被广泛认为是充分实现先进LIGO科学潜力的关键。我们打算通过改进涉及伽马射线观测（与GRB相关）的搜索和开发涉及中微子观测（与核心坍缩超新星相关）的搜索来实现这一目标。随着Advanced LIGO的投入使用，我们正在为新的天文介质引力波的发现时代做准备。从历史上看，每一种观察宇宙的基本新方法不仅导致了新科学的出现，而且也导致了公众感知世界的新方式。我们预计引力波也是如此。我们的工作将有助于确保我们的观测仪器Advanced LIGO充分发挥其潜力，并尽可能科学地利用自然界的新窗口。因此，除了新方法和观测结果的发表所带来的科学进步之外，我们还期待着人类对宇宙本质的重大启示。一个新的科学学科引力波天文学已经出现，技术人员的教育和进步必须跟上步伐。研究生、博士后和本科生的参与是该项目的关键因素。作为一个额外的，对社会的直接利益，我们还将继续与高中教师合作，把这项研究给他们的学生，并通过演讲活动参与公众。

The Oregon group will continue its vigorous efforts aimed at discovery of gravitational waves (GW) within the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC). The program will be pursued in the two areas where Oregon has developed significant expertise and compiled a successful record of accomplishment. The first is detector characterization and detection optimization: As the initial LIGO (iLIGO) era winds down and the Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) era ramps up, the lessons learned will be applied to the aLIGO instrument and the aLIGO science program. Specifically, we will understand the coupling mechanisms for environmental noise to the LIGO interferometer by way of measurement (analyzing data from monitoring instrumentation) and the development of software to better identify subtle mechanisms which gave rise to troublesome noise transients in iLIGO. The second is data analysis, especially in developing searches for GW transients associated with astrophysical triggers, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or supernovae. An important motivation for developing and refining these searches will be to learn how best to combine other astronomical observations with those from LIGO, something we helped pioneer with triggered GRB searches in iLIGO. Furthering this development is widely seen to be crucial for the full realization of the scientific potential of Advanced LIGO. We intend to pursue this by refining searches involving gamma-ray observations (associated with GRBs) and developing searches involving neutrino observations (associated with core-collapse supernovae).With the commissioning of Advanced LIGO, we are preparing for an era of discovery with the new astronomical medium of gravitational waves. Historically, each fundamental new means for observing the universe has resulted in the emergence not only of new science, but new ways the public perceives the world. We expect this to also be the case with gravitational waves. Our work will help ensure that our observational instrument, Advanced LIGO, works to its full potential, and that the new window on nature is exploited scientifically to the greatest extent possible. So beyond the scientific advancement resulting from publication of new methods and observations, we anticipate the possibility of significant human enlightenment regarding the nature of the universe to result. A new scientific discipline of gravitational- wave astronomy has emerged, and the education and advancement of the technical workforce must keep pace. The participation of graduate students, postdoctoral associates, and undergraduate students is a crucial element of the project. As an additional, direct benefit to society, we will also continue to work with high school teachers to bring this research to their students, and to engage the public via speaking engagements.