INSPIRE Track 1: Three-Dimensional Seismometer Array at the Homestake Mine

该INSPIRE奖部分由数学和物理科学理事会物理部的LIGO研究支持计划以及地球科学理事会地球科学部的地球物理计划资助。 地震仪阵列通常用于地球物理学、地震学和工程学中，以研究地震波的传播，检测和研究其源，并评估地球内部不同深度的特性。由于易于安装，迄今为止绝大多数地震计阵列都是基于地面的。该项目将建造和运行一个由13个高灵敏度宽带地震仪组成的密集地下三维阵列。该阵列将位于南达科他州的Homestake矿，其可达深度为4850英尺，巨大的水平跨度允许探测1英里的地下立方体。该项目将引力物理学和地球物理学中用于分析瞬态和随机波信号的现有技术结合起来，预计将产生新的地震数据分析技术。重要的是，这些研究的结果也将对未来引力物理学地下实验的设计产生深远的影响，例如爱因斯坦相对论等效原理的探测。未来的地下引力波探测器将观测各种天体物理现象和宇宙大爆炸的特征，否则无法观测到这些特征。由于重力实验的未来可以说是在地下，因此重力物理学界从地球物理学中关于地震噪声和地震波传播的大量知识中汲取经验至关重要。通过让一组物理学家和地质学家在一个共同感兴趣的环境中共同分析这种独特的高质量数据，该项目将导致地震噪声层析成像的突破。这些突破将具有广泛的应用和社会影响，从无损材料测试到医疗诊断，地球物理勘探（探测矿藏和石油）和国土安全（探测地下洞穴）。该项目还将教育几个研究生和本科生，使他们接触到电子物理学和引力物理学领域交叉点的前沿研究。

This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the LIGO Research Support program in the Division of Physics in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Geophysics program in the Division of Earth Sciences in the Directorate of Geosciences. Seismometer arrays are commonly used in geophysics, seismology, and engineering to study the propagation of seismic waves, detect and study their sources, and assess properties of the Earth's interior at various depths. The vast majority of seismometer arrays to date have been surface-based due to the ease of installation. This project will build and operate a dense, underground, three-dimensional array of 13 high-sensitivity broadband seismometers. The array will be located at the Homestake mine, SD, whose accessible depth of 4850 feet and vast horizontal span allow probing a 1-mile underground cube. Bringing together the existing techniques in gravitational physics and geophysics for analysis of transient and stochastic wave signals, this project is expected to give rise to qualitatively new seismic data analysis techniques. Importantly, results of these studies will also have a profound impact on the design of future underground experiments in gravitational physics, such as probes of the Equivalence Principle of Einstein's theory of relativity. Future underground gravitational-wave detectors that will observe otherwise inaccessible signatures of various astrophysical phenomena and of the Big Bang will also be designed based on the seismic noise studies conducted within this project.This project will enable interactions between the geophysics and gravitational physics communities that would be of substantial mutual benefit. Since the future of gravity experiments is arguably underground, it is critical for the gravitational physics community to draw from the large body of knowledge in geophysics on seismic noise and seismic wave propagation. By allowing a team of physicists and geophysicists to work together on the analysis of this unique high-quality data in a mutually interesting environment, this project will lead to breakthroughs in seismic noise tomography. Such breakthroughs will have a broad range of applications and societal implications, ranging from nondestructive material testing to medical diagnosis, geophysical prospecting (detecting mineral deposits and oil), and homeland security (detecting underground cavities). The project will also educate several graduate and undergraduate students, exposing them to the frontiers of research at the intersection of the fields of geophysics and gravitational physics.