RUI: Computational Gravitational-Wave Research for the Era of First Observations

在爱因斯坦预言它们存在一个世纪后，激光干涉仪引力波天文台(LIGO)首次观测到了引力波--扭曲的空间和时间的涟漪。这些波来自10亿光年以外的两个合并的黑洞。这一奖项将帮助科学家观测到尽可能多的引力波，同时尽可能多地了解引力波的天文来源。具体地说，该奖项支持一个研究项目，该项目使用超级计算机来预测来自合并的黑洞和中子星的引力波，并研究限制LIGO覆盖范围的最重要的噪声源。通过参加这一项目，加州州立大学富勒顿分校的学生将学习研究和计算方面的可移植技能，同时在天文学新纪元的开启中发挥重要作用。富勒顿是一所主要面向本科生和拉美裔美国人的机构。即将到来的引力波发现可能会极大地改变我们对宇宙的理解。这一奖项再次支持加州州立大学富勒顿大学的计算引力波研究计划。PI以及本科生和硕士水平的研究人员将利用高性能计算解决计算引力波物理中的两个关键挑战。首先，他们将使用光谱爱因斯坦编码(SPEC)来模拟合并的黑洞和中子星--这是高级LIGO最有希望的来源--重点关注具有挑战性但具有天体物理意义的快速黑洞自转情况。由此产生的模拟引力波形将有助于最大限度地扩大LIGO的覆盖范围，部分原因是通过为未来的LIGO搜索提供更好的近似波形模型；这些模拟还将揭示扭曲时空在从未建模过的极端条件下的行为。其次，PI和学生研究人员将使用高性能计算对热噪声进行建模--热噪声是探测器天体物理灵敏度的最重要的基本限制之一--重点放在一种非常有希望的改进途径--水晶镜面材料上。利用这些高度复杂的技术将有助于在理解复杂弹性结构(包括带有结晶涂层的镜子)中的波动方面取得突破。这些新的见解将使高精度测量的热噪声得到实质性改善，目前热噪声是引力波探测、原子钟和惯性传感的限制噪声源。

A century after Einstein predicted their existence, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has made the first observation of gravitational waves--ripples of warped space and time. The waves came from a pair of merging black holes over a billion light years away. This award will help scientists to observe as many gravitational waves as possible while learning as much as possible about the waves' astronomical sources. Specifically, this award supports a research program that uses supercomputers to predict the gravitational waves from merging black holes and neutron stars and to study the most important source of noise limiting LIGO's reach. Through their participation in this program, students at California State University Fullerton, a primarily undergraduate-serving and Hispanic-serving institution, will learn transferable skills in research and computing while playing important roles in the inauguration of a new era in astronomy. The imminent gravitational-wave discoveries could dramatically change our understanding of the universe.This award renews support for California State University Fullerton's computational gravitational-wave research program. The PI and undergraduate and master's-level researchers will address two crucial challenges in computational gravitational-wave physics using high performance computing. First, they will use the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC) to model merging black holes and neutron stars--the most promising sources for Advanced LIGO--focusing on the challenging but astrophysically important case of rapid black-hole spins. The resulting simulated gravitational waveforms will help maximize LIGO's reach, in part by leading to better approximate waveform models for future LIGO searches; the simulations will also reveal how warped spacetime behaves under extreme conditions never before modeled. Second, the PI and student researchers will use high-performance computing to model thermal noise--one of the most significant fundamental limits to detectors' astrophysical sensitivities--focusing on a highly promising avenue for improvement, crystalline mirror materials. Leveraging these highly sophisticated techniques will allow for breakthroughs in the understanding of the fluctuations in complex elastic structures, including mirrors with crystalline coatings. These new insights will allow for substantial improvements in the thermal noise of high precision measurements, currently a limiting noise source for gravitational-wave detection, atomic clocks, and inertial sensing.