CAREER: Enabling Multimessenger Astrophysics with Real-Time Gravitational Wave Detection

在过去的几十年里，天体物理学家和天文学家一直在研究宇宙，寻找一些最具能量的瞬变事件的线索。 长期以来，人们一直认为真正极端的物体，如黑洞和中子星是罪魁祸首。 跨越电磁频谱的先进仪器提供了大量关于瞬变宇宙的信息;然而，许多观测无法直接探测所讨论的系统的动力学。 广义相对论提供了一种方法，通过将运动编码为时空中的涟漪（称为引力波），从远处绘制出大质量致密物体的动力学。 该项目的首席研究员将在LIGO科学合作组织内领导一项工作，以实时检测黑洞和中子星合并产生的瞬态引力波，从而实现及时的多波长后续观测，从而为瞬态的起源提供新的线索。这些发现将被转发到后续观测站网络，以便科学家们在这些事件消失之前尽可能多地了解它们。 这项研究将增加对空间、时间的基本性质以及地球实验室无法获得的物质和能量的奇异状态的性质的理解。LIGO合作组织已经在华盛顿州的汉福德和洛杉矶的利文斯顿建造了高灵敏度的激光干涉引力波接收器，这些接收器将测量到银河系外距离的时空的微小振荡，例如，两颗中子星的合并 来自这些天文台的数据将实时传输到美国各地的超级计算设施，数千个计算节点将整合数百万个独特的黑洞和中子星星系统物理模型，称为模板，并以真实的时间提供数据。 由PI共同开发的先进信号处理技术和软件将在信号到达地球的几秒钟内推断出任何模型的信号的存在。 要求在多个地理上分离的引力波探测器中同时观测信号将允许定位源的位置，并提供信号不是地球起源的置信度。 最佳拟合参数和对事件重要性的估计将被纳入引力波候选事件数据库，该数据库将向外部伙伴发出警报，并通过伽马射线坐标网络与伽马射线爆发等外部触发因素进行实时关联。

In the last decades, astrophysicists and astronomers have studied the Universe for clues about what causes some of the most energetic transient events. It has long been thought that truly extreme objects such as black holes and neutron stars are responsible. Advanced instruments spanning the electromagnetic spectrum have provided a wealth of information regarding the transient Universe; however, many observations are unable to directly probe the dynamics of the systems in question. General relativity provides a way to map out the dynamics of massive, dense objects from a distance by encoding the motion as ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. The principal investigator of this project will lead an effort within the LIGO Scientific Collaboration to detect transient gravitational waves from the merger of black holes and neutron stars in real-time, enabling prompt multi-wavelength follow-up observations that can shed new light onto the origin of transients. Discoveries will be relayed to a network of follow-up observatories so that scientists can learn as much as possible about these events before they fade away. This research will increase understanding of the fundamental nature of space, time and the properties of exotic states of matter and energy that are not accessible to Earth-based laboratories.The LIGO Collaboration has built highly sensitive laser interferometric gravitational wave receivers in Hanford, WA and Livingston, LA that will measure to extra-galactic distances the minute oscillations of space-time caused by, for example, the merger of two neutron stars. Data from these observatories will be streamed in real-time to supercomputing facilities across the U.S where thousands of computing nodes will integrate millions of unique physical models of black hole and neutron star systems, known as templates, with the data in real time. Advanced signal processing techniques and software co-developed by the PI will infer the presence of a signal from any of the models within seconds of the signal arriving at Earth. Requiring signals to be observed simultaneously in multiple geographically separated gravitational wave detectors will allow the position of the source to be localized as well as provide confidence that the signal is not of terrestrial origin. The best-fit parameters and estimate of the event significance will be ingested into the gravitational-wave candidate event database where alerts to external partners will be issued as well as real-time correlation with external triggers such as gamma-ray bursts through the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network (GCN).