Toward Gravitational Wave Discovery with Advanced LIGO

利用先进的 LIGO 探索引力波

• 批准号: 1307429
• 负责人: Jolien Creighton
• 金额: $ 96万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-08-15 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1307429&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Toward; Gravitational; Wave; Discovery; Advanced

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.

UWMLSC小组将贡献几个关键元素来创建对瞬时引力波的低延迟在线流动搜索，例如那些在双中子星或黑洞合并期间产生的引力波，双中子星或黑洞是最受期待的引力波信号。我们将创建的数据分析元素包括流数据校准系统、用于确定数据质量和毛刺否决的低延迟系统，以及在线搜索来自鼓舞人心的紧凑双星的信号和通用的未建模突发。这种快速识别信号的系统将是先进探测器时代引力波科学的基本要素，并将使多信使天文学能够综合几种类型的观测(引力波；电磁波；高能粒子)，以获得对宇宙中最灾难性事件的来源的详细了解。引力波天文学将揭示神秘伽马射线爆发的内在机制，将提供一种测量黑洞数量和确定大质量黑洞生长通道的手段，并将探索核密度以上物质的基本性质。测量宇宙学参数的新方法将成为可能，这将补充现有的观测。引力波观测还将对爱因斯坦的广义相对论进行敏感的测试，而这种测试还没有被仔细研究过。宇宙引力波窗口的打开可能会显示出奇异的物体，如赤裸裸的奇点、宇宙弦或意想不到的物理学。随着我们的新天文设施投入使用，我们必须准备好应对这些科学挑战。为此，该奖项将支持下列工作：可能导致发现致密双星合并的引力波，提供快速天空定位以促进电磁后续工作，产生由其他观测设施产生的触发器引发的快速转向定向搜索，通过测量双星中子星合并前的潮汐相互作用获得核状态方程，观察黑洞形成通道并通过其准正常振荡模式探测黑洞的基本性质，扫描天空以发现未被发现的快速旋转的中子星并了解它们的性质，测试宝贵的引力原理，如无毛和宇宙审查猜想，并寻求新的奇异和意想不到的现象。我们的工作支持创建一个系统的关键组件，该系统将允许将引力波观测快速传输到整个天文学家社区，并促进将引力波科学整合到更广泛的天体物理学领域。该小组在培养新的研究人员方面有着良好的记录；该项目将通过培训新一代研究生、博士后研究员和初级教员来产生广泛的影响，并通过UWM天文馆等外联活动向社区传达这一萌芽中的天文学分支的兴奋之情。