RUI: Improving LIGO Optics and Data Quality to Increase the Rate and Accuracy of Gravitational-Wave Observations

在阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦预测引力波一个世纪后，美国国家科学基金会资助的高级激光干涉仪引力波天文台(Advanced LIGO)发现了来自合并的黑洞和中子星双星系统的引力波，从而打开了一扇了解宇宙的新窗口。这一奖项将扩大Advanced LIGO的覆盖范围，帮助其实现其全部承诺。特别是，它将支持研究，以减少当光线击中引力波探测器中的光学元件时所损失的光量，并应用机器学习技术来发现和消除探测器数据中的干扰。这项研究将涉及加州州立大学富勒顿分校的不同的本科生和硕士学生团队，并向他们提供可移植的技能。富勒顿州立大学是一所主要为本科生和拉美裔服务的机构。这项研究的结果将改善光学的最先进水平，并通过新的引力波发现加深我们对宇宙的理解。这一奖项重申了对加州州立大学富勒顿实验引力波物理项目的支持。PI将领导一个由本科生和硕士学生组成的团队进行研究，重点放在两个对扩大高级LIGO的覆盖范围至关重要的领域。首先，他们将采用机器学习的技术来识别导致仪器中时变噪音的物理过程，并努力改进它们。这将提高引力波观测的速度和从中提取信息的准确性。其次，他们将进行实验，以确定引力波探测器光学系统中光散射背后的机制，这是直接限制LIGO灵敏度的量子噪声的关键。将开发一种新的仪器来测试来自LIGO光学系统的长而神秘的点状散射是否与光学系统在退火过程中形成的微晶体有关。这项工作将带来更高质量的光学，并改进未来引力波观测中的量子降噪技术，如压缩光。这一奖项反映了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。

A century after the prediction of gravitational waves by Albert Einstein, the NSF-funded Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO) opened a new window on the Universe by discovering gravitational waves from merging binary systems of black holes and neutron stars. This award will extend the reach of Advanced LIGO, helping it to achieve its full promise. In particular, it will support research to reduce the amount of light that is "lost" when it hits the optics in gravitational-wave detectors and to apply Machine Learning techniques to find and remove disturbances in the detector data. This research will involve and provide transferable skills to a diverse team of undergraduate and Master's students at California State University Fullerton, a primarily undergraduate and Hispanic-serving institution. The results of this research will improve upon the state-of-the art in optics and deepen our understanding of the Universe through new gravitational-wave discoveries. This award renews support for California State University Fullerton's experimental gravitational-wave physics program. The PI will lead a team of undergraduate and master's students in research focused on two areas critical to extending the reach of Advanced LIGO. First, they will adapt techniques from Machine Learning to identify the physical processes that cause time-varying noise in the instruments and work to ameliorate them. This will increase the rate of gravitational-wave observations and the accuracy of the information extracted from them. Second, they will conduct experiments to identify the mechanisms behind light scattering in gravitational-wave detector optics, a key to the quantum noise that directly limits LIGO's sensitivity. A new instrument will be developed to test whether the long mysterious point-like scatter from LIGO optics is related to micro-crystals formed during annealing of the optics. This work will lead to higher quality optics and improve quantum-noise reduction techniques such as squeezed light in future gravitational-wave observatories.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.