Advanced LIGO Operations Support

我们关于整个宇宙的大部分知识都来自科学家所说的“电磁辐射”--从无线电波到红外辐射和光，再到X射线和伽马射线。2015年9月14日，当我们首次直接探测到被称为引力波的时空涟漪时，这种情况发生了戏剧性的变化。两个黑洞碰撞产生的第一个引力波信号(GW150914)的观测揭开了天文学的新篇章。我们已经发现了双星黑洞，并了解到宇宙中每隔15分钟就有两个质量相当于恒星质量的重黑洞发生碰撞。事实上，自2015年9月以来，我们又观察到了9次此类碰撞，我们目前正在分析一组新的数据，其中包含大约40个候选信号。2017年8月17日，我们观测到了第一颗双中子星合并的GW170817。然后，在从伽马射线到无线电波的整个电磁谱中，探测到了两颗中子星碰撞后产生的电磁辐射，这可能是天文学史上对单个天体进行的最激烈的观测活动。在目前正在进行的科学运行的第一部分，最近观察到了另一种可能的双星中子星合并。这项计划的目标是继续操作LIGO仪器，并使用合并黑洞和中子星的信号来了解更多关于这些物体、恒星、物质在极端条件下的演化，并测试我们对引力本身的理解。我们还将开始为这些仪器的首次升级安装和调试新的技术解决方案，这些仪器将于2024年开始观测，并允许观察到更弱的信号，使研究成为可能，并有望提供令人惊讶的发现。

Most of our knowledge about the Universe at large has been derived from what scientists refer to as "electromagnetic radiation" - ranging from radio waves through infrared radiation and light, to X-rays and gamma rays. This has changed dramatically on September 14, 2015 when we directly detected for the first time ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. The observation of the first gravitational-wave signal (GW150914) generated by the collision of two black holes has opened a new chapter in astronomy. We have discovered binary black holes, and learnt that every 15 minutes somewhere in the Universe two heavy stellar-mass black holes collide. In fact, since September 2015 we have observed nine more collisions of this kind and we are currently analysing a new set of data that contain approximately 40 candidate signals. On August 17, 2017 we observed GW170817, the first merger of a binary neutron star. Electro-magnetic radiation generated in the aftermath of the collision of the two neutron stars was then detected across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma-rays to radio waves, in possibly the most intense observational campaign of a single object in the history of astronomy. Another likely binary neutron star merger has been recently observed during the first part of the science run currently in progress.The goal of this proposal is to continue to operate the LIGO instrument and use signals from merging black holes and neutron stars to learn more about the evolution of these objects, stars, matter in extreme conditions, and to test our understanding of gravity itself. We will be also begin to install and commission new technological solutions for the first upgrade of these instruments which should begin observing in 2024 and allow much weaker signals to be observed, enable studies and hopefully provide surprising discoveries.