Gravitational Radiation from the Milky Way -- Searching for Continuous Waves from Spinning Neutron Stars

最近发现的来自黑洞碰撞和中子星碰撞的引力波，标志着科学上的关键里程碑，同时证实了爱因斯坦广义相对论的基本预测，同时开辟了天文学的一个全新领域。探测到来自旋转的银河系中子星的连续引力波将标志着另一个重大里程碑，因为这种源预计将持续发射很长时间，使后续研究能够提高精度，包括与射电、光学、X射线和伽马射线波段的潜在信号相关联。将这些引力和电磁信号结合起来，将提供对这些鲜为人知的这些奇异恒星结构的关键洞察。这项研究将在仪器和分析两方面为本科生和研究生提供知识前沿的最新科学培训。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)使用密歇根小组最初开发的方法搜索连续引力波；2)开创新的搜索方法，更深入、更有效地探索双星系统中连续引力波的潜在来源；以及3)高级LIGO干涉仪的探测器特性，专注于光谱识别和缓解，以改进对几乎单色连续引力波的搜索。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The recent discoveries of gravitational waves from colliding black holes and from colliding neutron stars marked key milestones in science, simultaneously confirming fundamental predictions of Einstein's General Relativity, while opening up an entirely new field of astronomy. The detection of continuous gravitational waves from rotating galactic neutron stars will mark another major milestone because such sources are expected to continue emitting for long durations, allowing follow-up investigation of increasing precision,including correlation with potential signals in the radio, optical, X-ray and gamma-ray bands. Combining these gravitational and electromagnetic signals will provide critical 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) searches for continuous gravitational waves using methods developed originally by the Michigan group; 2) pioneering new search methods that probe more deeply and computationally more efficiently potential sources of continuous gravitational waves in binary stellar systems; and 3) detector characterization of Advanced LIGO interferometers focused on spectralline identification and mitigation, in order to improve searches for nearly monochromatic continuous gravitational waves.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.