Travel Support for Workshop on Gravitational Wave Tests of Alternative Theories of Gravity in the Advanced Detector Era at Montana State University April 5-7, 2013

该奖项支持的科学研讨会将专注于创造性和潜在的变革性研究，这是第一次专门用引力波测试爱因斯坦理论的努力。这是充分挖掘引力波探测潜力的关键一步。鉴于即将到来的先进探测器和引力波天体物理学的曙光，这种类型的研究也是及时和相关的。上述目标与首席研究员Yunes的长期目标完全一致，他有多年的经验来实现这一目标。引力波的影响与爱因斯坦的预测有系统的背离，这显然是惊人的。但是，没有偏离爱因斯坦的理论也将构成科学的一大步，一劳永逸地证明爱因斯坦的理论在最极端的引力情况下也是有效的。引力波天体物理学正在进入一个发现和探索的新时代，预计在未来几年内，美国的地面干涉仪高级LIGO将首次探测到引力波。LIGO的主要任务之一是在爱因斯坦的广义相对论之前从未被测试过的地方测试它：相对于地球或太阳的引力，那里的引力是巨大的。这样的任务是可以实现的，因为当黑洞和中子星在银河系和附近星系碰撞时，引力波编码了这种力的信息。该奖项的主要目的是资助一个科学研讨会，该研讨会将汇集引力波理论和数据分析方面的专家，以及修正引力理论方面的专家，讨论如何利用引力波的发现来更多地了解爱因斯坦的理论。这次活动是2013年4月在蒙大拿州波兹曼举行的“庆祝爱因斯坦”活动的一部分。

The Scientific Workshop supported by this award will be focused on creative and potentially transformative research, constituting the first dedicated effort to test Einstein's theory with gravitational waves. This is an essential step to exploit the full potential of gravitational wave detection. This type of research is also timely and relevant, in view of upcoming, advanced detectors and the dawn of gravitational wave astrophysics. The objectives delineated above align perfectly with the Principal Investigator Yunes' long-term goals, who has years of experience building up to this objective. The impact of gravitational waves signaling a systematic departure from Einstein's predictions is clearly breathtaking. But the lack of a departure from Einstein's theory would also constitute a huge step for Science, proving for once and for all that Einstein's theory is also valid in the most extreme gravitational scenarios. Gravitational wave astrophysics is entering a new era of discovery and exploration, with first detections expected within the next few years with Advanced LIGO, the ground-based interferometer in the United States. One of the key missions of LIGO is to test Einstein's theory of General Relativity where it has never been tested before: where the gravitational force is enormous relative to Earth's or the Sun's pull. Such a task is achievable because gravitational waves encode information about this force when black holes and neutron stars collide in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. The main objective of this award is to fund a scientific workshop that will bring together experts in gravitational wave theory and data analysis, together with experts in modified gravity theories, to discuss how the discovery of gravitational waves can be leveraged to learn more about Einstein's theory. This event is part of a broader outreach initiative, called "Celebrating Einstein", to be held in Bozeman Montana in April 2013.