Center for Gravitational Wave Physics

该奖项支持建立引力波物理中心。这个物理前沿中心致力于发展引力波现象学：可以通过所有波段的引力波观测来探索的物理学和天体物理学。它由三个紧密相连的主要研究部分组成：一)学习如何利用引力波与电磁观测相比提供的全新视角；二)利用引力波观测来测试和促进对强场、动态重力的理解；三)开发将探测器和震源科学结合在一起的建模工具，以提供对先进探测器设计的“科学范围”的定量评估。为了实现明确形成这一新领域的目标，中心作为一个国家机构发挥作用，拥有大量的访客计划；致力于关键研究领域的研讨会、会议和研究所，预计专家的重点关注将导致突破或快速进步；以及为非现场中心成员和计划参与者提供中心活动(研讨会、座谈会、研讨会和研究小组会议)的间接、互动接口。该中心的教育方案通过与教育公共电视节目《新闻有什么？》相关联，面向全国的中学生。三个特别方案构成了其外展方案的核心：Towomen，通过参加科学与工程领域的女性研讨会(重点关注7-9年级)和女性科学与工程研究指导计划(重点针对一年级和二年级的本科女性)，以及通过与德克萨斯大学布朗斯维尔分校的特殊联系，面向高级和研究生西班牙裔学生。即将推出的新一代地面和空间引力波探测器在广义相对论、天文物理学和广义相对论的界面上带来了令人兴奋的挑战和机会和实验物理学。他们将探测到的波出现在强大的动态引力场中，为测试对完全非线性相对论引力的理解提供了第一次机会。同时，观测到的天体物理含义可能是新颖、多样和丰富的，因为它们揭示了电磁天文学隐藏的过程的内在动力学：例如，在高红移的星系中心发生黑洞碰撞。一个新的物理学领域-引力波现象学--因此即将出现；然而，由于缺乏大型实验的传统，引力物理学也缺乏一个现象学家社区，准备充分利用即将到来的观测所带来的丰富的物理学知识。引力波物理中心提供了一个智力平台，在这个平台上，现有的专业知识可以以协同的方式结合和集中，形成一个连贯、繁荣的领域，可以充分实现引力波观测的承诺。

This award supports the formation of The Center for Gravitational WavePhysics. This Physics Frontier Center is devoted to development ofgravitational wave phenomenology: the physics and astrophysics that canbe explored by gravitational wave observations in all wavebands. It isorganized in three tightly-linked Major Research Components: i)learning how to exploit the fundamentally new perspective that gravitationalwaves offer, when compared to electromagnetic observations; ii) usinggravitational wave observations to test and contribute to theunderstanding of strong-field, dynamical gravity; and iii) developingmodeling tools that combine detector and source science to providequantitative assessments of the ``science reach'' of advanced detectordesigns. To achieve its goal of crystalizing the formation of this newfield, the Center functions as a National Facility with a substantialvisitor program; workshops, conferences and institutes devoted tocritical research areas where the focused attention of experts can beexpected to lead to breakthroughs or rapid advancements; and asubstantial, interactive interface to Center activities (seminar,colloquia, workshops and research group meetings) for off-site Centermembers and program participants. The Center's education programemphasizes middle school children nationwide, through an affiliationwith the educational public television program "What's In The News?".Three special programs form the core of its outreach program: towomen, through its participation in the Women In Science andEngineering "Expanding Your Horizons" workshop (focused on grades 7--9)and the Women In Science and Engineering Research mentoring program(focused on first and second year undergraduate women), and to upperdivision and graduate Hispanic students, through a special liaison withthe University of Texas, Brownsville.The forthcoming generation of ground and space-based gravitational wavedetectors have unleashed exciting challenges and opportunities at theinterface of general relativity, astrophysics, and experimentalphysics. The waves they will detect arise in strong, dynamicalgravitational fields, offering the first opportunities to test theunderstanding of fully non-linear relativistic gravity.Simultaneously, the observations' astrophysical implications are likelyto be novel, diverse and rich as they reveal the inner dynamics ofprocesses hidden from electromagnetic astronomy: e.g., the collision ofblack holes in the center of a galaxy at high redshift. A new field ofphysics --- gravitational wave phenomenology --- is thus poised toemerge; however, lacking a tradition of large experiments,gravitational physics lacks also a community of phenomenologists readyto fully exploit the rich physics that the forthcoming observationsoffer. The Center for Gravitational Wave Physics provides theintellectual platform upon which existing expertise can be combined andfocused in a synergistic manner, crystallizing the formation of acoherent, flourishing field that can fully realize the promise thatgravitational wave observations hold.