Toward Gravitational Wave Discovery with Advanced LIGO

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The UWMLSC group will contribute several critical elements to create a low-latency streaming on-line search for transient gravitational waves, such as those produced during the coalescence of binary neutron stars or black holes, the most anticipated gravitational wave signal. Among the data analysis elements we will create are the streaming data calibration system, a low-latency system for determining data quality and glitch vetoing, and on-line searches for signals from inspiralling compact binaries and for generic unmodeled bursts. Such a system to rapidly identify signals will be an essential element of gravitational wave science in the Advanced Detector Era, and will enable multi-messenger astronomy in which observations of several kinds (gravitational waves; electromagnetic waves; high energy particles) are synthesized to obtain a detailed understanding of the sources of the most cataclysmic events in the universe. Gravitational wave astronomy will reveal the inner mechanism of the mysterious gamma ray bursts, will provide a means to measure the population of black holes and determine the channel by which massive black holes are grown, and will probe the fundamental nature of matter above nuclear densities. New ways of measuring cosmological parameters will become available, which will complement existing observations. Gravitational wave observations will also provide sensitive tests of Einstein's General Relativity in ways in which it has not yet been scrutinized. The opening of the gravitational wave window onto the universe can potentially evince exotic objects such as naked singularities, cosmic strings, or unexpected physics. We must be ready to address these scientific challenges as our new astronomical facilities come into operation. To this end, this award will support work that may result in the first gravitational wave discoveries of compact binary coalescence, provide rapid sky localization to facilitate electromagnetic follow-up efforts, yield fast turn-around targeted searches prompted by triggers generated by other observational facilities, obtain the the nuclear equation of state by measuring the tidal interactions of binary neutron stars just prior to their merger, observe black hole formation channels and probe fundamental properties of black holes through their quasi-normal modes of oscillation, scan the sky to find undiscovered rapidly rotating neutron stars and to learn about their properties, test cherished principles of gravitation such as the no-hair and cosmic-censorship conjectures, and seek new exotic and unexpected phenomena.Our work supports the creation of critical components of a system that will allow the rapid transmittal of gravitational wave observations to the entire community of astronomers, and facilitates the integration of gravitational wave science into the broader field of astrophysics. The group has a solid track record of educating new researchers; this project will have a broad impact by training a new generation of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty members in gravitational-wave astronomy, as well as conveying the excitement of this budding branch of astronomy to the community through outreach efforts such as the UWM Planetarium.