Gravitational Wave Detection and Astrophysics

该奖项支持与激光干涉仪引力波天文台（LIGO）实验相关的三个领域的研究：1)干涉仪的详细探测器特性；2)调试两个汉福德干涉仪，使其超出初始设计灵敏度；3)对周期性引力波源进行全天搜索。因此，要进行的工作包括提高探测器的性能和寻找银河系中未被发现的、电磁安静的旋转中子星的证据。发现来自天体物理物体的引力波将标志着科学的一个重要里程碑，同时证实了引力物理学的一个基本预测，同时开辟了一个全新的天文学领域。探测来自旋转中子星的这种波将特别有趣，因为许多这样的源预计会持续发射很长一段时间，从而使后续调查变得越来越精确，而且因为人们相信这些波将提供对这些奇异恒星鲜为人知的结构的深入了解。对仪器及其数据进行的研究将为本科生和研究生提供在知识前沿的最先进科学方面的培训。

This award supports research focused on three areas related to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Experiment: 1) detailed detector characterization of the interferometers; 2) commissioning of the two Hanford interferometers to advance them beyond initial design sensitivity; and 3) carrying out an all-sky search for periodic sources of gravitational waves. The work to be carried out thus includes both improving detector performance and searching for evidence of undiscovered, electromagnetically quiet, rotating neutron stars in our galaxy.Discovery of gravitational waves from astrophysical objects will mark a major milestone in science, simultaneously confirming one of the fundamental predictions of gravitational physics, while opening up an entirely new field of astronomy. The detection of such waves from rotating neutron stars would be especially interesting because many such sources are expected to continue emitting for long periods of time, allowing follow-up investigations with increasing precision, and because it is believed that these waves will provide insight into the poorly known structure of these exotic stars. The research to be carried out, on both the instruments and their data, will provide training to undergraduate and graduate studentsin state-of-the-art science at the frontier of knowledge.