Maximizing Science Output of LIGO: Improved Detectors and Data Analysis

这是一个支持激光干涉仪引力波观测站的研究项目，旨在通过制定改进引力波观测站探测器的战略以及开发和实施分析引力波观测站数据的新方法，最大限度地提高其科学产出。该项目将：(I)促进精密测量技术的进步，(Ii)使LIGO加深我们对广义相对论的理解，以及(Iii)在引力物理和量子物理之间的界面上推动实验物理的前沿。该项目将由加州理工学院相对论(CART)小组实施，并将作为年轻物理学家和天体物理学家的训练场，向他们传授各种研究技术。CART的成员还将开展广泛的活动，接触更广泛的科学界和普通公众。更具体地说，这个项目将包括四个方向。(A)它将研究如何升级先进的LIGO探测器，并发明用于未来探测器的新的量子计量技术，从而制定和评估提高LIGO灵敏度的创新方法。该计划还将探索新的引力波(GW)探测方法，探索人类大小物体的量子行为，并为量子区域中的宏观物体寻找新的物理。(B)光谱爱因斯坦代码(SPEC)的数值相对论二进制黑洞模拟将用于LIGO数据分析：(1)LIGO探测的后续模拟将用于验证唯象波形模型的准确性，探索这些模型的参数偏差，并根据需要执行替代参数估计策略；以及(2)替代波形模型，它在数值相对论波形之间进行内插，以产生要求参数的高精度波形，将被实现在LAL中，并用于关于GW150914、GW151226和未来事件的参数估计研究。(C)将部分通过适当综合这一领域的若干最新发展，为LIGO搜索连续引力波设计更有效的搜索算法。(D)将使用LIGO数据测试和演示广义相对论的各个方面，包括：重建引力波的色散关系，通过测量潮汐耦合来探测黑洞的结构，探测记忆效应，以及从探测到的事件集合中寻找与广义相对论的广义偏差。

This is a research project in support of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), aimed at maximizing its scientific output, by the formulation of strategies for improving LIGO detectors and the development and implementation of new ways to analyze LIGO data. This project will: (i) contribute to the advancement of precision measurement technology, (ii) allow LIGO to deepen our understanding of general relativity, and (iii) push the frontier of experimental physics at the interface between gravitational and quantum physics. This project will be carried out by the Caltech Relativity Theory (CaRT) group and will serve as a training ground for young physicists and astrophysicists, by teaching them a wide variety of research techniques. Members of the CaRT will also pursue a wide range of activities that reach out to the broader scientific community and the general public.More specifically, this project will consists of four directions. (A) It will formulate and evaluate innovative approaches to improving LIGO's sensitivity, by studying how Advanced LIGO detectors should be upgraded, and by inventing new quantum metrology techniques for use in future detectors. The program will also explore new approaches to gravitational wave (GW) detection, and explore the quantum behavior of human-sized objects, and search for new physics for macroscopic objects in the quantum regime. (B) Numerical relativity binary black hole simulations from the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC) will be used for LIGO data analysis: (i) Simulations following up on LIGO detections will be used to verify the accuracy of phenomenological waveform models, to explore parameter biases of these models, and to perform alternative parameter estimation strategies as needed; and (ii) Surrogate waveform models, which interpolate between numerical relativity waveforms to produce a waveform at requested parameters to high accuracy, will be implemented into LAL and be used in parameter estimation studies on GW150914, GW151226, and future events. (C) More efficient search algorithms will be designed for LIGO searches for continuous gravitational waves, in part by appropriately synthesizing several recent developments in this area. (D) Aspects of general relativity will be tested and demonstrated using LIGO data, including: reconstructing the dispersion relation of gravitational waves, probing the structure of black holes via measuring tidal coupling, detecting the memory effect, and search for general deviations from general relativity, from an ensemble of detected events.