WOU-MMA: Shedding New Light on Buried Cosmic Accelerators with Gravitational Waves and High-Energy Neutrinos

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This award supports research in data analysis from gravitational wave detections and neutrino observations and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. After 100 years of development since Einstein first predicted their existence, gravitational waves are now regularly discovered by the LIGO and Virgo observatories. These waves, carried by the changing curvature of space-time, inform us of violent collisions of black holes and ultracompact dead stars, called neutron stars, in the distant cosmos. Studying these distant collisions enables us to probe the fundamental laws of physics, the evolution of the universe, and the origin of our Galaxy or even our Solar System. This research will address a fundamental aspect of cosmic collisions: their ability to accelerate particles to extremely high energies, about a billion times higher than what has been achieved on Earth. The work will search for the neutrino signature of extreme acceleration from collisions detected by gravitational waves. In particular it will elucidate the currently unknown mechanisms by which black holes can eject energetic particles while swallowing matter from the debris of the collision. Additionally, the observation of multiple cosmic messengers from colliding black holes and neutron stars will be developed and used as an education tool to train students in physics and beyond.The major theme of the project is the multi-messenger observation of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos from compact binary mergers and core-collapse supernovae. Data will be analyzed from the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave observatories and the IceCube neutrino observatory. The main goal of the work is to find and understand multi-messenger sources that are electromagnetically dark due to dense gas, stellar envelope, or ejecta between the source and the observer. The work will investigate a state-of-the-art search technique to help LIGO achieve its full potential by bringing closer the detection of the last missing puzzle piece from multi-messenger astrophysics: the joint observation of gravitational waves and neutrinos.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.