CAREER: Populations and Systematic Uncertainties in the Era of the Advanced Gravitational-Wave Detectors

该奖项支持相对论天体物理学的研究，并解决了NSF“宇宙之窗”大构想的优先领域。引力波的探测为探索宇宙及其一些最迷人的现象开辟了新的途径。当两个致密的物体，黑洞或中子星碰撞时，它们会发射引力波，引力波编码了它们的来源的属性，例如质量和自旋。迄今为止，在美国国家科学基金会资助的LIGO天文台和处女座探测器的数据中，已经发现了十多个双黑洞和两个双中子星合并。在接下来的五年里，我们希望每周能探测到一个以上的双黑洞源，大约每个月能探测到一个双中子星。该项目将通过开发将大量来源的信息结合起来的方法，使引力波数据能够得到广泛的科学利用。与此同时，它将处理系统误差的主要来源，否则这些误差可能会阻碍天体物理学的推断，限制其对科学界的有用性。除了能够对引力波源的数量进行可靠的分析外，该项目还将增加服务不足的社区和代表性不足的少数族裔在STEM中的代表性。该项目包括一项针对低收入地区的高中教师的专业发展计划，使教师和学生了解引力波天体物理学背后的主要思想，并强调从物理学位获得的许多可转移技能。考虑到在未来几年内将发现数十到数百个紧凑的双星系统，它们的充分利用将在关键的物理学和天体物理学问题上取得成果。如此丰富的检测系统，其中一些具有较大的信噪比，既是机遇也是挑战。为了充分利用现有数据，需要复杂的数据分析算法和对系统误差的全面控制。这项工作有两个主要目标：a)开发工具来描述紧凑双星的总体特征，同时考虑到边缘源和一些触发因素可能不是天体物理起源的可能性；b)量化和减轻一种重要类型的系统误差的影响，这些误差来自引力波探测器的校准。因此，这项工作将推进引力波天体物理学的关键问题，并有助于最大限度地提高LIGO和国际引力波探测器网络的科学产出。尽管在过去的二十年里取得了一些进展，但授予少数族裔，特别是非洲裔美国人的物理学学士学位仍然太少。在众多可能导致这一低数字的因素中，人们认为物理学学位并不能打开就业市场的大门。该项目包括一项针对高中教师的专业发展计划，在学生人均支出较低的地区开办学校。该项目将有两个主要目标：让教师和学生了解广义相对论、引力波和天体物理学背后的主要思想，并直接从这个研究项目中提供例子，说明可以直接从物理学学位转移到工业工作中的思想和方法。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This award supports research in relativistic astrophysics and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. The detection of gravitational waves has opened new avenues to explore the universe and some of its most fascinating phenomena. When two compact objects, black holes or neutron stars, collide, they emit gravitational waves which encode the properties of their sources, for example masses and spins. To date, more than a dozen binary black hole and 2 binary neutron star mergers have been found in the data of the NSF-funded LIGO observatories and the Virgo detector. Over the next five years, we expect to detect more than one binary black hole source per week, and roughly one binary neutron star per month. This project will enable a broad scientific exploitation of gravitational-wave data by developing methods to combine information from a large number of sources. At the same time, it will deal with the main sources of systematic error, which might otherwise hinder astrophysical inference, limiting its usefulness for the scientific community. In addition to enabling a reliable analysis of the population of gravitational-wave sources, this project will also increase the representation of underserved communities and underrepresented minorities in STEM. The project includes a professional development program for high school teachers which will target low-income areas and expose the teachers and their students to the main ideas behind gravitational-wave astrophysics and highlight the many transferable skills acquired with a physics degree.Given the tens to hundreds of compact binary systems that will be detected in the next few years, their full exploitation will bear fruit on key physics and astrophysics questions. Such a wealth of detected systems, some of which at large signal-to-noise ratio, constitutes both an opportunity and a challenge. To fully exploit the available data, sophisticated data analysis algorithms and a full control of systematic errors will be needed. The work has on two main goals: a) to develop tools to characterize the population of compact binaries while accounting for marginal sources and for the possibility that some triggers might not be of astrophysical origin and b) to quantify and mitigate the effect of an important type of systematic errors, those those arising from the calibration of the gravitational-wave detectors. The work will thus advance key questions in gravitational-wave astrophysics and help maximize the science output of LIGO and the international network of gravitational-wave detectors. Despite some progress over the last twenty years, the fraction of bachelor physics degrees awarded to students from under-represented minorities, and in particular African Americans, is still too low. Among the many factors that might contribute to these low numbers, is the perception that a degree in physics does not open many doors to the job market. The project includes a professional development program for high school teachers, with schools in districts with low per-pupil expenditure. The program will have two main goals: expose the teachers, and hence their students, to the main ideas behind general relativity, gravitational waves and astrophysics, and provide examples, directly from this research program, of ideas and methods that can be directly transferred from a physics degree to a job in industry.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.