Eccentric Black Hole Mergers: Search and Interpretation with Gravitational Waves

偏心黑洞合并：用引力波进行搜索和解释

• 批准号: 2207661
• 负责人: Imre Bartos
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 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: 2022-07-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2207661&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Eccentric; Black; Hole; Mergers; Search

The discovery of gravitational waves from two merging black holes opened a new window on the Universe. Nevertheless, despite ongoing new discoveries, the physical process that makes black holes merge is still not understood. The proposed research will probe this question of origin by targeting mergers that retain eccentric orbits observable through their gravitational wave emission. The project will develop a targeted algorithm optimized to find eccentric mergers to be used during LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA’s upcoming observing runs. These research activities will provide training for graduate students in modeling and data analysis, skillsets which are in great demand and of great benefit to society. In addition, members of the group will engage in outreach activities in order to educate and inspire the public about this new field of physics and astronomy.The first theme of the project is the enhancement of search sensitivity to eccentric mergers. This will be carried out using simulated eccentric gravitational waveforms and optimizing search parameters to detect these waveforms. The second theme of the project will be the characterization of this sensitivity. The reach of the search needs to be established for the full range of expected gravitational waveforms in order to enable the astrophysical interpretation of future detections. With these steps the project will help maximize the ability of the next LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA observing runs to elucidate the origin of newly detected black hole mergers.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.

来自两个合并黑洞的引力波的发现为我们打开了了解宇宙的新窗口。然而，尽管不断有新发现，但使黑洞合并的物理过程仍然不为人所知。拟议的研究将通过针对保留可通过引力波发射观测到的偏心轨道的合并来探讨起源问题。该项目将开发一种优化的目标算法，以找到 LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA 即将进行的观测运行期间使用的偏心合并。这些研究活动将为研究生提供建模和数据分析方面的培训，这些技能对社会有很大的需求和好处。此外，该小组的成员还将从事外展活动，以教育和启发公众有关物理和天文学这一新领域的知识。该项目的第一个主题是增强对偏心合并的搜索敏感性。这将使用模拟偏心重力波形并优化搜索参数来检测这些波形来进行。该项目的第二个主题将是这种敏感性的表征。需要针对所有预期的引力波形确定搜索范围，以便能够对未来的探测进行天体物理学解释。通过这些步骤，该项目将有助于最大限度地提高下一次 LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA 观测运行的能力，以阐明新发现的黑洞合并的起源。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Detecting and Diagnosing Terrestrial Gravitational-Wave Mimics Through Feature Learning

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.107.062006
• 发表时间: 2022-03
• 期刊: ArXiv
• 作者: R. Colgan;Z. M'arka;Jingkai Yan;I. Bartos;John N. Wright;S. M'arka

Gravitational Wave Source Populations: Disentangling an AGN Component

• DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/acbfb8
• 发表时间: 2023-01
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal Letters
• 作者: V. Gayathri;D. Wysocki;Y. Yang;V. Delfavero;R. O’Shaughnessy;Z. Haiman;H. Tagawa;I. Bartos