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研究宇宙打开了一扇新的窗口。然而，尽管不断有新的发现，黑洞合并的物理过程仍然不为人所知。拟议的研究将通过目标合并来探索这个起源问题，这些合并保留了通过引力波发射可观察到的偏心轨道。该项目将开发一种有针对性的算法，用于在LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA即将进行的观测运行中寻找偏心合并。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很大的好处。此外，该小组的成员将参与外展活动，以教育和激励公众了解这一新的物理和天文学领域。该项目的第一个主题是提高对偏心合并的搜索灵敏度。这将通过模拟偏心重力波形和优化搜索参数来检测这些波形。该项目的第二个主题将是描述这种敏感性。为了能够对未来的探测进行天体物理学解释，搜索范围需要建立在所有预期的重力波形范围内。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，以阐明新探测到的黑洞合并的起源。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。

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