Collaborative Research: WoU-MMA: Opening the Infrared Window into Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

合作研究：WoU-MMA：打开多信使天体物理学的红外窗口

• 批准号: 2206730
• 负责人: Mansi Kasliwal
• 金额: $ 35.04万
• 依托单位: California Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2206730&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; WoU; MMA; Opening

For most of human history, light has been the only tool available for astronomers to studythe nature of objects in the distant universe. Recently, gravitational wave interferometers and high energy neutrino experiments have achieved the first direct detection of spacetime perturbations and particles from distant cosmic explosions, coincident with conventional observation of transients using visible light. The emerging discipline of multi-messenger astrophysics combines information from gravitational waves, neutrinos and light each probing a different physical scale and process to unravel the physics of extreme cosmic events that test our understanding of strong gravity and the end stages of stars. This project will open the relatively unexplored infrared sky to time-domain surveys. A sensitive wide-field infrared telescope, the Wide-Field InfraRed Transient Explorer, WINTER, at Palomar Observatory will be dedicated to multi-messenger astrophysics. The program will include graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, undergraduate students for summer projects and senior theses, and high school students and high school teachers for summer projects. The project plans to work with multiple diversity initiatives reaching out to women and underrepresented minorities. Three scientific goals will be pursued by this project. Firstly, a search will be conducted for infrared counterparts to binary neutron star mergers and neutron star black hole mergers during the LIGO/Virgo fourth gravitational wave observing run. The advantage of WINTER's infrared search is that the emission is predicted to be ubiquitous and much less affected by viewing angle, mass ratio, remnant lifetime and opacity distribution. Characterizing the counterpart will reveal information regarding the heavy elements that were synthesized. Secondly, a search for infrared counterparts to high energy neutrino triggers from ICECUBE will be undertaken. Thirdly, a search for stellar mergers of the most massive stars will be made to derive a complete luminosity function and rate estimate. Insights during this common envelope phase will have implications on many branches of stellar evolution, including multi-messenger progenitor systems. The project will participate in existing diversity initiatives for undergraduate and high school students at Caltech, California State University, California Community Colleges, MIT and the Pasadena Unified School District.This project advances the goals of the 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.

在人类历史的大部分时间里，光一直是天文学家研究遥远宇宙中物体性质的唯一工具。最近，引力波干涉仪和高能中微子实验首次实现了对遥远宇宙爆炸中的时空扰动和粒子的直接探测，这与传统的利用可见光观测瞬变的做法是一致的。多信使天体物理学的新兴学科结合了引力波、中微子和光的信息，分别探测不同的物理尺度和过程，以揭开极端宇宙事件的物理学，这些事件考验着我们对强引力和恒星末期的理解。该项目将把相对未被探索的红外线天空开放给时间域测量。帕洛玛天文台的一个灵敏的广域红外望远镜，广域红外瞬变探测器，冬季将致力于多信使天体物理。该项目将包括研究生、博士后学者、暑期项目和高级论文的本科生，以及暑期项目的高中生和高中教师。该项目计划与涉及妇女和代表性不足的少数群体的多项多样性倡议合作。该项目将追求三个科学目标。首先，在LIGO/室女座第四次引力波观测运行期间，将搜索与双星中子星合并和中子星黑洞合并对应的红外对应物。冬季红外搜索的优势是，预计辐射将无处不在，受视角、质量比、剩余寿命和不透明度分布的影响要小得多。对应物的表征将揭示有关合成的重元素的信息。其次，将对来自冰立方的高能中微子触发的红外对应物进行搜索。第三，将对最大质量恒星的恒星合并进行搜索，以得出完整的光度函数和速率估计。在这个共同的包络阶段的洞察将对恒星进化的许多分支产生影响，包括多信使前体系统。该项目将参与加州理工大学、加州州立大学、加州社区学院、麻省理工学院和帕萨迪纳联合学区现有的本科生和高中生多样性倡议。该项目推进了宇宙大理想之窗的目标。该奖项反映了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。