Improved methods for the detection of gravitational waves associated with gamma-ray bursts

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The long-anticipated birth of gravitational-wave astronomy willoccur in the next few years with the advent of the AdvancedLIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Theseinstruments will open a new channel for studying the most extreme phenomena andenvironments found in nature, including gamma-ray bursts, core-collapsesupernovae, and black-hole mergers. The inner engines of these systems are eitherobscured or inherently invisible to electromagnetic observations. Furthermore, theassociated gravitational-wave emission typically depends on poorly understoodphysics, such as the equation-of-state of matter at supra-nuclear densities.Gravitational waves will therefore provide an exciting new probe of theseastrophysical systems, for example constraining the neutron star equation-of-state,and providing laboratories for tests of fundamental physics and cosmology. However,realising the potential of gravitational waves poses a significant challenge: state-of the-art techniques for detecting and interpreting gravitational waves require precisetheoretical models of the gravitational-wave emission, and hence are not applicableto most gravitational-wave sources. This project aims at maximising the scientificexploitation of gravitational waves through advancements beyond current state-of the-art in rapid automated analyses, advanced signal/background discrimination, andwaveform reconstruction. The goals of this project are: (i) to develop the model independenttechniques needed to robustly detect gravitational waves fromrelativistic transient events, and determine the signal structure; (ii) to apply these todata from the Advanced LIGO / Advanced Virgo network to detect GWs; and (