Scalable Cyberinfrastructure for Early Warning Gravitational Wave Detections

天文学设施的最新进展打开了观察宇宙的新窗口，使观测能力超越了传统望远镜。联合观测结合了联合收割机望远镜，中微子探测器和新的引力波探测器，包括NSF支持的LIGO天文台，正在揭示宇宙的各个方面，目前是一个谜。就在最近，传统望远镜和引力波探测器都探测到了两颗密度极高的中子星相撞的信号，这颗中子星被称为GW 170817。 这一事件首先在引力波中被发现，两秒钟后在伽马射线中被发现，10小时后在光学，紫外线，红外线中被发现，更晚的时候在X射线和无线电波中被发现。 从这一事件中，世界了解到一些短硬伽马射线爆发表明中子星星合并，这些合并可能是周期表中许多元素的起源，如金和铂，引力和光以相同的速度传播，引力波确实可以测量宇宙膨胀的速度。 尽管有了这些知识，GW170817还是给世界留下了许多问题。后来形成了什么东西？是另一颗中子星星吗？是黑洞吗？为什么与GW 170817相关的伽马射线爆发与已观察到的任何其他东西都不同？解决这些问题并定期进行此类联合观测需要大量的计算和软件基础设施（网络基础设施）。该项目建议开发必要的网络基础设施，以便比目前更早地向其他天文设施发出引力事件警报，使研究人员能够收集尽可能多的关于这些新型天体事件的数据。该项目将通过为中子星星合并的流早期预警搜索提供亚秒级数据传输来加强LIGO的流数据传输。大量的自动化监控和反馈将确保整个系统在没有人工干预的情况下运行。该项目将利用NSF在网络基础设施方面的现有投资进行实时引力波分析，并将显著增强数据传输和自动化检测层，这是目前的瓶颈和故障模式。利用引力波为机器人望远镜提供早期预警将大大提高LIGO数据的科学效用，并大大促进多信使天体物理学。 该提案将促进美国国家科学基金会10大理念中的两个理念的科学进步：“利用数据革命”“宇宙之窗：多信使天体物理学时代”。该项目得到了计算机和信息科学与工程局高级网络基础设施办公室的支持。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Recent advances in astronomical facilities have opened new windows on the universe that extend observing capabilities beyond conventional telescopes. Joint observations that combine telescopes, neutrino detectors, and new gravitational wave detectors including the NSF-supported LIGO Observatory are revealing aspects of the universe that are presently a mystery. Just recently, signals from the collision of two extremely dense neutron stars - a merger known as GW170817 - were detected by both conventional telescopes and gravitational wave detectors. The event was detected first in gravitational waves, two seconds later in gamma rays, after 10 hours in optical, ultraviolet, infrared, and much later in x-ray and radio waves. From this single event, the world learned that some short-hard gamma ray bursts indicate neutron star mergers, that these mergers might be the origin of many elements in the periodic table such as gold and platinum, that gravity and light travel at the same speed, and that gravitational waves really could measure how fast the universe is expanding. Despite what was learned, GW170817 left the world with many questions. What object was formed afterward? Was it another neutron star? Was it a black hole? Why was the gamma ray burst associated with GW170817 unlike anything else that had been observed? Answering these questions, and conducting these kinds of joint observations on a regular basis, requires significant computing and software infrastructure (cyberinfrastructure).The project proposes to develop the cyberinfrastructure necessary to give earlier gravitational event alerts to other astronomical facilities than is currently possible, allowing researchers to collect as much data as possible about these new types of celestial events. This project will fortify the streaming data delivery of LIGO by producing sub-second data delivery to a streaming early warning search for neutron star mergers. Substantial automated monitoring and feedback will ensure the entire system operates without manual intervention. The project will capitalize upon existing NSF investments in cyber-infrastructure for real-time gravitational wave analysis and will significantly augment the data delivery and automation layer for detections which is presently a bottleneck and failure mode. Using gravitational waves to provide an early warning for robotic telescopes will significantly enhance the scientific utility of LIGO data and significantly facilitate multi-messenger astrophysics. This proposal will promote the progress of science in two of the National Science Foundation's 10 Big Ideas: "Harnessing the Data Revolution" "Windows on the Universe: The Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics". This project is supported by the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.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.