Gravitational Wave Transient Astrophysics with LIGO

引力物理学正处在一个将动摇其基础的发现的边缘：直接探测到引力波，即爱因斯坦在100年前的广义相对论中预言的时空曲率的微小振荡。引力波是由加速质量的引力场变化产生的，对引力波的探测将揭示宇宙中最具灾难性和神秘事件的信息：恒星的死亡、黑洞的碰撞和大爆炸。激光干涉仪引力波天文台（LIGO）及其姊妹项目处女座（Virgo）正在引领引力物理学的新时代。今年标志着高级LIGO硬件升级的完成，这是一种量子噪声限制激光干涉仪，将探测比最初的LIGO多1000倍的星系。源群研究表明，它将定期探测中子星和黑洞碰撞产生的引力波。该奖项支持乔治亚理工学院高级LIGO探测引力波的关键任务研究，用于探测、表征和天体物理学解释引力波瞬态信号，这些信号来自首次高级LIGO科学运行的数据。该项目有三个组成部分：(1)参与LIGO-Virgo全天搜索一般的瞬态引力波，对广泛的致密物体特征敏感，包括核心坍缩超新星，中子星和/或黑洞双系统的合并以及中子星振荡；(2)开发混合数据分析和数值相对论的创新方法，为双黑洞合并的目标搜索做出贡献；(3)在LIGO探测器表征团队内，对高级LIGO数据进行表征，以实现科学发现，提供必要的数据质量信息，以清理数据集和否决误报，并尽早发现数据质量问题，以便在仪器中减轻这些问题。该奖项将受益于PI和co-PI以及乔治亚理工相对论天体物理学中心的协同团队的长期合作，以及计算天体物理学，宇宙学，粒子天体物理学，天文学，计算学院和亚特兰大强大的外展计划的专家，通过与LIGO科学合作的新关系得到加强，以及对多样性和女性在STEM中的作用的坚定承诺。

Gravitational physics is on the edge of a discovery that will shake its foundation: the direct detection of gravitational waves, tiny oscillations of the curvature of space-time that were predicted 100 years ago by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Gravitational waves are produced by changes in the gravitational field of accelerating masses, and their detection will reveal information from the most cataclysmic and mysterious events in the Universe: the death of a star, the collision of black holes, and the Big Bang. This new era of gravitational physics is being ushered in by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and its sister project Virgo. This year marks the completion of hardware upgrades that form Advanced LIGO, a quantum-noise-limited laser interferometer which will probe about 1000 times more galaxies than initial LIGO. Source population studies suggest it will routinely detect gravitational waves from the collision of neutron stars and black holes. This award supports mission critical research for the detection of gravitational waves by Advanced LIGO at the Georgia Institute of Technology, for the detection, characterization and astrophysical interpretation of gravitational wave transient signals in data from the first Advanced LIGO science runs.This project has three components: (1) participation in the LIGO-Virgo all-sky search for generic gravitational wave transients, sensitive to a wide range of compact object signatures, including core-collapse supernovae, coalescence of neutron star and/or black hole binary systems and neutron star oscillations, (2) development of innovative approaches to blending data analysis and numerical relativity, with contribution to targeted searches for binary black hole coalescences, and (3) characterization of Advanced LIGO data to enable scientific discovery, to deliver the data quality information necessary to clean the data sets and veto false positives, and to identify data quality issues early enough that they can be mitigated in the instruments, within the LIGO Detector Characterization team. The award will benefit from the long term collaboration of the PI and co-PI and a synergistic team at the GeorgiaTech Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, with experts in computational astrophysics, cosmology, particle astrophysics, astronomy, the college of computing and a strong outreach program in Atlanta, enhanced by the new ties to the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and a firm commitment to diversity and the role of women in STEM.