Data Analysis Techniques for Advanced Gravitational Wave Detectors

在这个项目中，将开发和测试技术来分析来自高级引力波(GW)探测器的数据，包括激光干涉引力波天文台(LIGO)，以从天体物体中搜索引力波。这个项目有两个主要目标：快速旋转的中子星(密度极大，质量比太阳和城市大，每秒自转几十到数百倍)，以及黑洞和/或中子星由于GW辐射而在轨道崩溃的最后几秒钟内的双星系统。引力波(GWS)，爱因斯坦广义相对论预测的几何和空间和时间的扭曲，为我们提供了一个新的宇宙窗口，使我们能够补充从电磁光谱的不同部分以及从宇宙射线和中微子观测获得的信息范围。包括LIGO在内的现代一代探测器已经建成，最近完成了几年的观测，这对GW信号的强度和频率造成了限制。这些探测器目前正在升级到其先进的配置，具有更高的灵敏度，应该会在不久的将来提供第一次直接GW探测。这个项目将让罗切斯特理工学院的教职员工和学生参与，为首次探测奠定基础，并由此突破性地扩展我们对宇宙的知识。除了搜索GWS外，还将产生引力波传播和探测的可视化图像，这将有助于普通公众了解LIGO所做的科学。

In this project, techniques will be developed and tested to analyze data from advanced gravitational wave (GW) detectors including the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) to search for GWs from astrophysical objects. There are two main targets of this project: rapidly rotating neutron stars (extremely dense objects more massive than the Sun and the size of a city, spinning tens to hundreds of times every second), and binary systems of black holes and/or neutron stars in the last seconds of the breakdown of their orbits due to GW emission.Gravitational waves (GWs), distortions of the geometry and space and time predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, provide a new window on the universe, allowing us to supplement the range of information available from different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and from cosmic ray and neutrino observations. A modern generation of detectors including LIGO has been built and recently completed several years of observations which have resulted in limits on the strength and frequency of GW signals. These detectors are currently being upgraded to their advanced configuration, with an increased sensitivity which should provide the first direct GW detection in the near future. This project will involve faculty and students of the Rochester Institute of Technology in laying the groundwork for that first detection and the resulting groundbreaking expansion of our knowledge of the universe. In addition to the search for GWs, visualizations will be produced of gravitational-wave propagation and detection which will aid the general public's understanding of the science done by LIGO.