Research Infrastructure: LIGO Laboratory Operations and Maintenance 2024-2028 -- Exploring the Gravitational-Wave Cosmos

美国国家科学基金会的激光干涉仪引力波天文台（LIGO）的研究人员试图观察和理解引力波。引力波（GWs）是质量突然移动时产生的空间和时间振荡。它们可以携带有关宇宙灾难的信息，比如黑洞和中子星的碰撞。自2015年以来，LIGO已经观测到超过100个GW事件，揭示了这些位于数千万或数亿光年之外的奇异物体的全新信息。该合同将使LIGO能够搜索额外的GW信号，并提高LIGO的灵敏度，以便它能够观察到更远的灾难。LIGO是世界上首屈一指的引力波天文台。它是新兴的全球类似探测器网络的关键部分。在意大利（Virgo）、日本（KAGRA）和印度（LIGO India），这些装置正在运行或正在开发中。LIGO、Virgo以及光学、射电和x射线天文台的同步测量开启了多信使天文学的时代，在这个时代，对引力波和电磁波的协同探测揭示了关于宇宙的全新和令人兴奋的信息。2017年诺贝尔物理学奖授予了LIGO的先驱巴里·巴里什、基普·索恩和雷纳·韦斯，以表彰LIGO历史性的GW观测结果。该奖项将促进一支受过科学技术教育的劳动力队伍的发展，推进ligo相关技术的多学科应用，并将向公众传播有关ligo相关科学和技术的信息。该合同将资助现有LIGO设备的运行，以及设备的安装、调试和运行，以提高LIGO的灵敏度。这以及相关的研究活动，将为LIGO的工作人员、博士后和学生，以及全球127所与LIGO合作的大学的大约1400名研究人员和学生之间的跨学科合作创造持续的机会。资金用于继续运行位于华盛顿州汉福德和路易斯安那州利文斯顿的LIGO天文台，以及加州理工学院和麻省理工学院的相关科学和工程支持项目，并用于开展有关LIGO信息的教育和公共宣传项目。资金将通过新的合作协议发放，期限为2024年1月1日至2028年12月31日。工作内容包括：•维护和运行LIGO站点和干涉仪，•调试干涉仪以提高其对GW的灵敏度，•进行天体物理数据分析和探测器特性，以区分GW信号和噪声源，•开展研究和开发以提高探测器灵敏度，超越当前设计性能，•管理LIGO数据并将其传播给更广泛的研究团体，•提供软件和为LIGO提供计算资源，开发新的计算工具和方法来扩展LIGO的数据分析能力，以及•继续开展充满活力的基于天文台的LIGO教育和公共宣传计划。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。

Researchers at NSF's Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) seek to observe and understand gravitational waves. Gravitational waves (GWs) are oscillations in space and time that are generated whenever mass moves suddenly. They can carry information about cosmic catastrophes, such as the collisions of black holes and neutron stars. Since 2015, LIGO has observed more than one hundred GW events, revealing entirely new information about these exotic objects, which are located tens or hundreds of millions of light years away. This award will enable LIGO to search for additional GW signals and to improve LIGO’s sensitivity so that it can observe even more distant cataclysms. LIGO is the world’s premier gravitational wave observatory. It is a key part of an emerging global network of similar detectors. These are now in operation or under development in Italy (Virgo), Japan (KAGRA), and India (LIGO India). Concurrent measurements by LIGO, Virgo, and optical, radio, and X-ray observatories have inaugurated the era of multi-messenger astronomy, where synergistic detections of gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves reveal entirely new and exciting information about the cosmos. LIGO’s historic GW observations were recognized by the award of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics to LIGO pioneers Barry Barish, Kip Thorne, and Rainer Weiss. This award will stimulate the development of a scientific and technically educated workforce, advance the multidisciplinary application of LIGO-related technology, and it will disseminate information about LIGO-related science and technology to the general public. This award will fund the operation of the existing LIGO apparatus, as well as installation, commissioning, and operation of enhancements to the apparatus that will improve LIGO’s sensitivity. This, and related research activities, will create continued opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration between LIGO staff members, post-docs, and students, and the approximately 1400 researchers and students at 127 universities world-wide that collaborate with LIGO. Funding is provided for the continued operation of the LIGO observatories at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, the associated science and engineering support programs at Caltech and MIT, and for carrying out education and public outreach programs that disseminate information about LIGO. Funding will be awarded through a new cooperative agreement for the period from January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2028. The effort includes:• Maintenance and operation of the LIGO sites and interferometers,• Commissioning the interferometers to enhance their sensitivity to GWs,• Conducting astrophysical data analysis and detector characterization to discriminate GW signals from noise sources,• Carrying out research and development to enhance detector sensitivity beyond the current design performance,• Curation of LIGO data and its dissemination to the broader research community,• Provision of software and computing resources to LIGO, and the development of new computing tools and methods that extend LIGOs data analysis capabilities, and• Continuation of the vibrant observatory-based LIGO education and public outreach program.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.