CAREER: Computational Gravitational-Wave Science and Education in the Era of First Observations

在爱因斯坦预言引力波存在的一个世纪之后，激光干涉仪引力波天文台（LIGO）发现了引力波——时空扭曲的涟漪——来自一对合并的黑洞。引力波天文学即将出现的新发现可能会极大地改变我们对宇宙的认识。这个项目将帮助科学家观察到尽可能多的引力波，同时尽可能多地了解引力波的来源。利用超级计算机，PI和学生将计算合并黑洞和中子星产生的引力波，以加快和响应LIGO的观测；他们还将对限制LIGO探测范围的最重要噪声源进行建模。通过向当地社区大学的学生讲授超级计算和引力波科学，PI和学生将帮助培养下一代美国的STEM劳动力。该项目将对传统上在STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生产生实质性的积极影响，他们将学习研究和计算方面的可转移技能，同时在引力波科学中发挥重要作用。PI和学生研究人员将向其他科学家和公众广泛传播他们的结果。该奖项支持加州州立大学富勒顿分校的一个综合研究和教育项目。PI和学生们将模拟黑洞和中子星的合并，包括那些快速旋转的黑洞。他们将利用这些模拟的结果来帮助引力波天文学家从LIGO的观测中提取最有趣和最令人惊讶的科学结果，包括合并黑洞的特性和在最极端条件下的广义相对论测试。PI和学生们还将模拟引力波探测器光学中的热噪声，利用数值相对论中使用的复杂技术来模拟合并黑洞。这将有助于改善高精度测量的热噪声，并将增加引力波探测器的覆盖范围和对观测到的引力波特性的灵敏度。PI和学生将把他们的研究方法和结果整合到一个为期一周的年度研讨会中，来自当地社区大学的STEM专业学生将获得使用高性能计算集群模拟和可视化合并黑洞的实践经验。

A century after Einstein predicted their existence, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) discovered gravitational waves--ripples of warped space and time---from a pair of merging black holes. Imminent discoveries in the dawning era of gravitational-wave astronomy could dramatically change our understanding of the universe. This project will help scientists observe as many gravitational waves as possible while learning as much as possible about the waves' sources. Using supercomputers, the PI and students will calculate the gravitational waves from merging black holes and neutron stars, to expedite and respond to LIGO's observations; they will also model the most important source of noise limiting LIGO's reach. By teaching students from local community colleges about supercomputing and gravitational-wave science, the PI and students will help train the next generation of America's STEM workforce. This project will have a substantial positive impact on students from groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM, who will learn transferable skills in research and computing while playing important roles in gravitational-wave science. The PI and student researchers will broadly disseminate their results to other scientists and the public.This award supports an integrated research and education program at California State University, Fullerton. The PI and students will simulate merging black holes and neutron stars, including those with rapid black-hole spins. They will use results from these simulations to help gravitational-wave astronomers extract the most interesting and surprising scientific results from LIGO's observations, including properties of merging black holes and tests of general relativity under the most extreme conditions. The PI and students will also model thermal noise in gravitational-wave detector optics, leveraging the sophisticated techniques used in numerical relativity to model merging black holes. This will help improve the thermal noise of high precision measurements and will increase gravitational-wave detectors' reach and sensitivity to properties of observed gravitational waves. The PI and students will integrate methods and results from their research into an annual, week-long workshop, where STEM majors from local community colleges will gain hands-on experience using a high-performance computing cluster to simulate and visualize merging black holes.