Gravitational Wave Astrophysics in the High Event Rate Regime

经过几十年的研究和开发，引力波的搜索终于成功了，它们的探测永远改变了天文学领域。 在前两次观测中，NSF的高级LIGO探测器已经探测到至少五个双黑洞合并和一个双中子星星合并。 虽然这些探测已经在新的水平上验证了广义相对论，实现了新的宇宙学测量，并极大地推进了我们对紧凑物体的理解，但它们只是触及了这些探测器所能实现的表面。 LIGO和Virgo的下一个观测活动将带来数百个紧凑的二元合并观测。这项工作的目标是使用这些检测来回答以下问题：1）致密双星是如何形成的？2）我们是否遗漏了未建模的物理学？ 进行这项工作的小组将包括一名来自当地高中的教师，连续两个夏天，使引力波天文学的主题融入课程。 在接下来的2-3年里，LIGO的灵敏度将从每月一次提高到每天一次。该奖项将支持下一代源表征工具的开发和使用，以实现高事件率观测制度中的新科学，包括快速和自动化的事件跟踪，二进制群体表征以及对预测信号模型偏差的限制。新的贝叶斯分层建模工具将被开发和部署，以评估紧凑的二元地层环境。 还将开发替代信号模型，其将对一系列未建模的物理学敏感（例如，中子星的潮汐破裂，中子星星共振的激发，相对论的偏离），目前的表征技术可能会错过。 为了实现这一科学，改进的分析基础设施是必要的，能够处理更高的事件率。 该奖项将支持一个新的开源引力波数据分析库的开发，该库将作为这项工作的一部分开发的模型，以及表征LIGO探测到的紧凑双星合并所需的其他技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

After decades of research and development, the search for gravitational waves has finally succeeded, and their detection has forever changed the field of astronomy. During the first two observing runs NSF's Advanced LIGO detectors have already detected at least five binary black hole mergers and one binary neutron star merger. While these detections have already validated the theory of general relativity at new levels, enabled novel cosmological measurements, and greatly advanced our understanding of compact objects, they have only scratched the surface of what these detectors can achieve. LIGO and Virgo's next observing campaigns will bring hundreds more observations of compact binary mergers. The goal of this work is to use those detections to answer the questions: 1) How are compact binaries formed? and 2) Are we missing unmodeled physics? The group conducting this work will include a teacher from a local high school for two consecutive summers, enabling the integration of topics in gravitational wave astronomy into the curriculum. Over the next 2-3 years, LIGO's improved sensitivity will increase detection rates from one per month to one per day. This award will support the development and employment of the next generation of source characterization tools to enable new science in the regime of high-event-rate observation, including rapid and automated event follow-up, binary population characterization, and constraints on deviations from predicted signal models. New Bayesian hierarchical modeling tools will be developed and deployed to assess compact binary formation environments. Alternative signal models will also be developed, which will be sensitive to a range of unmodeled physics (e.g., tidal disruptions of neutron stars, excitation of neutron star resonances, deviations from relativity), that current characterization techniques could miss. To enable this science an improved analysis infrastructure is necessary, capable of handling much higher event rates. This award will support the development of a new open-source gravitational wave data analysis library that incorporates the models developed as part of this work, as well as other techniques necessary for characterizing compact binary mergers detected by LIGO.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.