Collaborative Research: Understanding Compact Binary Formation with the First Gravitational Wave Detections

致密天体（黑洞和中子星）双星的形成和演化是天体物理学中的一个重要而富有挑战性的问题。这类系统的观测数据来自射电望远镜对至少有一颗脉动中子星星或脉冲星的双星的探测，以及对双星生命最后几秒到几分钟的引力波观测，当它们螺旋上升并合并时。 约翰霍普金斯大学和宾夕法尼亚州立大学之间的一项研究合作将使用引力波观测来探索紧凑双星的天体物理模型，使用统计推断和机器学习。 在要解决的具体科学主题中，有紧凑双星如何形成的细节，使用紧凑双星合并来测量宇宙中遥远的源的距离，以及了解中子星致密核心中的物质状态。 引力波探测器的惊人发现引起了媒体和社交媒体的极大关注。黑洞、中子星和引力波是公众非常感兴趣的话题，有可能吸引初中和高中的学生学习STEM科目，否则他们会选择其他替代方案。 研究人员将利用目前对这些领域的兴趣激增，向中学生和高中生传达物理学前沿研究和发现的兴奋。拟议中的研究将阐明紧凑双星的进化模型，使用LIGO和Virgo引力波探测器观测到的双星合并事件目录。更具体地说，该项目的目标是区分紧凑型双星的竞争演化模型（集群中的动力学相互作用，孤立双星的演化和双星黑洞的原始起源）与测量的质量分布，自旋和紧凑型物体合并的其他属性。这项研究将有助于从天体物理学模型到引力波观测测量的系统的整体性质绘制一幅地图。这种地图，结合贝叶斯推理和机器学习，将用于更深入地了解紧凑型物体双星的天体物理学。研究人员将使用紧凑的双星作为精确的距离测量，以获得星系和星系团的特殊速度，星系的三维映射，并描述星系的气体，恒星和暗物质含量，并将结果与其他方法进行比较。引力波观测是多信使天文学的关键，这将有助于解决起源问题，例如黑洞如何以及何时形成以及它们如何演化，什么构成了宇宙的膨胀历史，以及中子星致密核心中的物质状态是什么。该项目推进了NSF宇宙大创意窗口的目标。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。

The formation and evolution of binaries of compact astrophysical objects (black holes and neutron stars) is an important and challenging problem in astrophysics. Observational data of such systems comes from radio telescope detections of binaries with at least one pulsating neutron star, or pulsar, and from gravitational-wave observations of the final few seconds to minutes of the lives of the binary, when they inspiral and merge. A research collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and Pennsylvania State University will use gravitational-wave observations to explore astrophysical models of compact binaries, using statistical inference and machine learning. Among the specific scientific topics to be addressed are the details of how compact binaries form, the use of compact binary mergers to measure distances to sources far off in the universe, and understanding the state of matter in the dense cores of neutron stars. The phenomenal discoveries by the gravitational-wave detectors have received a great deal of attention from the press and in social media. Black holes, neutron stars and gravitational waves are topics of great interest to the public, and have the potential to attract students in middle and high schools to STEM subjects who would have otherwise chosen other alternatives. The researchers will use the current surge of interest in these areas to inform middle and high students of the excitement of research and discovery in the forefront of physics. The proposed research will shed light on evolutionary models of compact binaries using a catalog of binary merger events observed by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. More specifically, the goal of the project is to discriminate between competing evolutionary models of compact binaries (dynamical interactions in clusters, evolution of isolated binaries, and primordial origin of binary black holes) from the measured distributions of masses, spins and other properties of compact object mergers. This study will help produce a map from the astrophysical models to the bulk properties of the systems measured from gravitational wave observations. Such maps, in combination with Bayesian inference and machine learning, will be used to gain a deeper understanding of the astrophysics of compact object binaries. The investigators will use compact binaries as accurate measures of distance to obtain peculiar velocities of galaxies and clusters, 3-d mapping of galaxies, and to characterize the gas, stellar and dark matter content of galaxies, comparing the results with other approaches. Gravitational wave observations are key to multi-messenger astronomy, which will help address the origin questions, such as how and when black holes formed and how they evolved, what constitutes the expansion history of the Universe, and what is the state of matter in dense cores of neutron stars. This project advances the goals of the NSF Windows on the Universe Big Idea.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.