Advanced LIGO Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Isolated and Binary Neutron Stars

爱因斯坦发现的广义相对论告诉我们，人们熟悉的日常引力是某种更奇怪的东西的表现：物质扭曲了时空的几何形状。该理论的关键预测之一是引力波的存在：大质量的快速运动导致时空几何中以光速运动的涟漪。虽然在对致密恒星的双星系统的间接影响方面得到了很好的测试，但直接探测入射到地球上的引力波构成了一个突出的挑战。实现这一能力的科学回报将是巨大的--从探索恒星爆炸的极端动力学到收集几乎在大爆炸时刻的宇宙状态信息。这一新的宇宙窗口的努力占据了几十年的实验和技术发展，推动了物理科学中不同领域的边界。探测来自旋转中子星的连续引力波将特别有趣，因为许多这样的源预计将持续发射很长时间，从而能够进行后续研究，以提高精度，而且人们相信这些引力波将提供对这些奇异恒星鲜为人知的结构的洞察。这项将在仪器和分析两方面开展的研究将为本科生和研究生提供前沿知识领域的最新科学培训。研究将集中在与高级激光干涉仪引力波天文台(Advanced LIGO)实验有关的一些具体领域：1)共同领导正在进行的LIGO科学合作搜索连续引力波；2)使用密歇根大学引力波组以前开发的程序搜索孤立和双星中子星的引力波；3)开发灵敏度和计算效率都得到改善的新搜索算法；4)先进LIGO干涉仪的探测器特性，侧重于谱线识别和抑制。

The General Theory of Relativity discovered by Einstein tells us that the familiar, everyday force of gravity is a manifestation of something much stranger: the bending of the geometry of space-time by matter. Among the key predictions of the theory is the existence of gravitational waves: ripples moving at the speed of light in the geometry of space-time caused by the fast motion of large masses. Although well tested in terms of their indirect effects on binary systems of compact stars, the direct detection of gravitational waves incident on Earth poses an outstanding challenge. The scientific rewards from achieving this ability would be enormous - ranging from probing the extreme dynamics of exploding stars to gleaning information about the state of the Universe almost at the moment of the Big Bang itself. The effort to enable this new window on the universe has occupied several decades of experimental and technological developments that have pushed the boundaries across diverse fields in the physical sciences. The detection of continuous gravitational waves from rotating neutron stars would be especially interesting because many such sources are expected to continue emitting for long durations, allowing follow-up investigation of increasing precision, and because it is believed that these waves will provide insight into the poorly known structure of these exotic stars. The research to be carried out, on both the instrumental and analytical sides, will provide training to undergraduate and graduate students in state-of-the-art science at the frontier of knowledge.Research will focus on a number of specific areas related to the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO) Experiment: 1) co-leading the ongoing LIGO Scientific Collaboration's search for continuous gravitational waves; 2) carrying out searches for those waves from both isolated and binary neutron stars using programs developed previously by the University of Michigan gravitational waves group; 3) developing new search algorithms with improved sensitivity and computational efficiency; and 4) detector characterization of Advanced LIGO interferometers focused on spectral line identification and mitigation.