RUI: Dense Matter and Gravitational Waves: The Coalescence of Neutron Star Binaries

LIGO科学合作组织和Virgo合作组织最近宣布首次观测到来自合并中子星的引力波。对中子星物质的第一个引力波约束已经开始对核密度以上的物质的性质产生新的影响，交叉检查电磁天文学中的中子星测量，并为核物理学中的计算提供信息。探测器的升级正在进行中，我们很快就会进入一个定期观测可以用来了解天体物理来源的时代。这些最初的限制将被精确的测量所取代，精确的测量依赖于对中子星星物质如何影响引力波的准确理解。在拟议的工作中，CSUF的学生将探索致密物质对引力波的影响。CSUF团队将在LIGO软件中开发动态混合波形基础设施，将昂贵的数值合并与具有所需参数的长解析启发连接起来，产生跨越LIGO整个频段的波形，并量化精度要求。他们将确定并努力减少使用多个中子星波形模型和模拟的引力波参数估计技术中的系统误差。这些努力将把来自引力波观测的信息与致密中子星物质和微观物理学的更广泛的天体物理学背景联系起来。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaborations recently announced the first observation of gravitational waves from merging neutron stars. The first gravitational-wave constraints on neutron-star matter have begun to shine new light on the properties of matter above nuclear density, cross-checking neutron-star measurements in electromagnetic astronomy and informing calculations in nuclear physics. Upgrades to the detectors are in progress, and we are soon to enter an era in which regular observations can used to learn about astrophysical sources. These first constraints will be supplanted by precision measurements that rely on an accurate understanding of how neutron star matter affects gravitational waves. In the proposed work, the CSUF students will explore the impact of dense matter on gravitational waves. This research introduces them to the science community, sparking future participation in gravitational astrophysics, data science, and engineering.The CSUF group will develop on-the-fly hybrid waveform infrastructure within LIGO software, connecting expensive numerical mergers to long analytic inspirals with desired parameters, yielding waveforms spanning LIGO's entire frequency band and quantifying accuracy requirements. They will determine and work to reduce the systematic errors in gravitational-wave parameter estimation techniques using multiple neutron-star waveform models and simulations. These efforts will connect the information coming from gravitational-wave observations with the broader astrophysical context of dense neutron-star matter and microphysics.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.