Mississippi's Contribution to Advanced LIGO's Search for Gravitational Waves

密西西比州对先进 LIGO 引力波搜索的贡献

• 批准号: 1404139
• 负责人: Marco Cavaglia
• 金额: $ 36万
• 依托单位: University of Mississippi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1404139&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Mississippi; Contribution; Advanced; LIGO; Search

The new Advanced LIGO detectors are on course to start soon their first science run. Before the end of this award period, Advanced LIGO may open a new, revolutionary window on the universe that will probe some of the most energetic and mysterious phenomena in the sky, from merger of black holes and explosions of supernovae to the internal structure of neutron stars. Gravitational-wave astronomy will allow scientists to see the universe from a novel and unique perspective, providing astrophysical insights that are not accessible with conventional telescopes. This research delivers vital contributions to Advanced LIGO's scientific core mission while strengthening LIGO's commitment to improving science education among diverse and underserved segments of the population, the youth and the general public. The success of the Advanced LIGO endeavor will have broader impacts in physics, astronomy, technology and engineering through the project's multiple spin offs. Research under this award will encourage the growth of scientific advancement in the southeast region of the United States, increase educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and enhance diversity in science. The activities funded through this award support Advanced LIGO research during detector commissioning and early science data taking phases. After the initial acceptance of the Advanced LIGO interferometers, University of Mississippi's researchers and students will work with LIGO personnel to characterize and improve the performance of the new instruments. These activities will be carried out on site by senior personnel and graduate students residing at the observatories, as well as off-site through the use of existing LIGO detector characterization tools and data mining techniques. In this phase, Mississippi's researchers and students will also contribute to the development, implementation and maintenance of dedicated software for data analysis and detector characterization. During the initial Advanced LIGO science runs, University of Mississippi's personnel will work in close contact with LIGO scientists to monitor and improve the performance of the detectors, mitigate unwanted non-astrophysical features in the data and reduce the background of Advanced LIGO's astrophysical searches.

新的高级LIGO探测器即将开始他们的第一次科学运行。在这个奖项结束之前，Advanced LIGO可能会打开一个新的，革命性的宇宙窗口，将探测天空中一些最具活力和神秘的现象，从黑洞合并和超新星爆炸到中子星的内部结构。引力波天文学将使科学家能够从一个新颖而独特的视角观察宇宙，提供传统望远镜无法获得的天体物理学见解。这项研究为Advanced LIGO的科学核心使命做出了重要贡献，同时加强了LIGO对改善人口、青年和公众中不同和服务不足群体的科学教育的承诺。Advanced LIGO奋进的成功将通过该项目的多个衍生产品对物理学、天文学、技术和工程产生更广泛的影响。该奖项下的研究将鼓励美国东南部地区科学进步的增长，增加科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的教育机会，并增强科学的多样性。通过该奖项资助的活动支持在探测器调试和早期科学数据采集阶段的先进LIGO研究。在先进的LIGO干涉仪初步验收后，密西西比大学的研究人员和学生将与LIGO人员合作，表征和改进新仪器的性能。这些活动将由居住在观测站的高级人员和研究生在现场进行，并通过使用现有的LIGO探测器表征工具和数据挖掘技术在场外进行。在这一阶段，密西西比的研究人员和学生还将为数据分析和探测器表征专用软件的开发、实施和维护做出贡献。在最初的高级LIGO科学运行期间，密西西比大学的工作人员将与LIGO科学家密切联系，以监测和改善探测器的性能，减少数据中不必要的非天体物理特征，并减少高级LIGO天体物理搜索的背景。