Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy with Advanced LIGO

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We have entered a new age of human exploration of the universe: the age of gravitational-wave astronomy. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime that carry information about distant astrophysical objects. The observation of binary black hole mergers by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has confirmed a one-hundred-year-old prediction of Einstein. We can now use gravitational waves to study the universe. Gravitational waves carry information that can tell us what happens when black holes collide, how massive stars die, how heavy elements form, how gravity works, and how the universe evolved. This group will continue the development of data analysis techniques used to extract signal from instrumental noise. In particular, the group's studies concentrate on signals generated by binary systems composed of black holes and/or neutron stars. The new methods accelerate the detection by making efficient use of computer resources available to LIGO and provide estimations of the parameters of the binary such as masses and rates of rotation. Gravitational-wave astrophysics offers exciting opportunities to inspire and educate students of all ages, strengthening both the diversity and competitiveness of U.S. secondary and college students, and improving the scientific literacy of the general public. The computational methods developed through this award are transferable to many areas of science and technology.This award directly supports Advanced LIGO's mission to detect gravitational waves from merging neutron stars and black holes. Black holes and neutron stars are nature's most compact objects and their collisions are a transformative laboratory for fundamental physics and astrophysics. The highly relativistic speeds and strongly-curved spacetimes of compact object mergers generate gravitational waves that encode the properties of the objects as they collide: how massive they are, how far away they are, and how fast they spin. These properties can then be used to understand how massive stars live and die. This award will support research to improve the sensitivity of Advanced LIGO's compact binary searches and develop next-generation parameter-measurement techniques to extract the physics from observed signals. The proposed project will continue to drive the development of scientific workflow tools and high-throughput computing that will have broad impact across the scientific community.