Gravitational Wave Transient Astrophysics with LIGO

引力物理学即将发现一项将动摇其基础的发现：直接探测引力波，即100年前爱因斯坦的广义相对论预测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，它们的探测将揭示宇宙中最灾难性和最神秘的事件的信息：恒星死亡、黑洞碰撞和大爆炸。激光干涉仪引力波天文台(LIGO)及其姊妹项目处女座(Virgo)开启了引力物理学的新时代。今年标志着高级LIGO的硬件升级完成，这是一种量子噪声受限的激光干涉仪，将探测大约1000倍于最初LIGO的星系。源种群研究表明，它将例行地探测到中子星和黑洞碰撞产生的引力波。该奖项支持佐治亚理工学院高级LIGO探测引力波的关键任务研究，用于探测、表征和天体物理解释来自第一批高级LIGO科学运行的数据中的引力波瞬变信号。该项目包括三个部分：(1)参与LIGO-Virgo全天搜索一般的引力波瞬变，对广泛的致密天体特征敏感，包括核心坍塌超新星、中子星和/或黑洞双星系统和中子星振荡；(2)开发混合数据分析和数值相关性的创新方法，为定向搜索双星黑洞关联做出贡献，以及(3)对高级LIGO数据进行表征，以进行科学发现，提供清理数据集和否决假阳性所需的数据质量信息，并及早查明数据质量问题，以便在LIGO探测器表征小组内的仪器中减轻这些问题。该奖项将受益于PI和共同PI以及乔治亚理工学院相对论天体物理中心的协同团队的长期合作，团队成员包括计算天体物理学、宇宙学、粒子天体物理学、天文学、计算机学院和亚特兰大的一个强大的外展项目，这得益于与LIGO科学合作的新联系，以及对多样性和女性在STEM中作用的坚定承诺。

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.