Gravitational Waves from Compact Objects

爱因斯坦发现的广义相对论告诉我们，我们日常所熟悉的引力其实是某种更奇怪的东西的表现：物质对时空几何形状的弯曲。该理论的关键预测包括宇宙膨胀和黑洞的存在，其中包括引力波（GW）的存在：在大质量的快速运动引起的时空几何中以光速运动的涟漪。虽然引力波对致密双星系统的间接影响已经得到了很好的验证，但直接探测地球上的引力波仍然是一个突出的挑战。实现这种能力的科学回报将是巨大的——从探测爆炸恒星的极端动力学到收集关于宇宙大爆炸时刻的状态的信息。这扇探索宇宙的新窗口耗费了数十年的实验和技术发展，突破了物理科学不同领域的界限。2015年将标志着引力波物理学备受期待的分水岭时刻：两个先进的激光干涉引力波天文台（aLIGO）探测器将开始它们的初始数据采集运行，随后是欧洲先进的处女座引力波天文台的调试。aLIGO探测器的灵敏度将提高到第一代探测器的10倍左右，为观测GW源打开了比以前大1000倍的空间体积。该奖项支持对先进LIGO数据的首次搜索，以寻找来自银河系中最年轻中子星的引力波。随着它们多年的旋转，这些恒星可以告诉我们自大爆炸以来最极端条件下物质的性质：超核密度、相对论速度、超导性和一亿度的超流体。有一天，它们也可能被用来检验爱因斯坦的广义相对论在天体物理尺度上对引力的描述是否正确。大部分工作包括升级和实现数据分析代码管道，以对来自年轻超新星遗迹的连续引力波进行匹配过滤搜索。代码和数据的改进将允许比以往更敏感的搜索。该代码还将用于探测器表征，以帮助改善LIGO干涉仪在首次科学运行过程中的性能，特别是在窄带光谱伪影方面。

The General Theory of Relativity discovered by Einstein tells us that the familiar, everyday force of gravity is a manifestation of something much stranger: the bending of the geometry of space-time by matter. Among the key predictions of the theory, which includes the expanding Universe and the existence of black holes, is the existence of gravitational waves (GW): ripples moving at the speed of light in the geometry of space-time caused by the fast motion of large masses. Although well tested in terms of their indirect effects on binary systems of compact stars, the direct detection of gravitational waves incident on Earth poses an outstanding challenge. The scientific rewards from achieving this ability would be enormous - ranging from probing the extreme dynamics of exploding stars to gleaning information about the state of the Universe almost at the moment of the Big Bang itself. The effort to enable this new window on the universe has occupied several decades of experimental and technological developments that have pushed the boundaries across diverse fields in the physical sciences. The year 2015 will mark a highly-anticipated watershed moment for gravitational-wave physics: The two advanced Laser Interferomenter Gravitational Wave Observatory (aLIGO) detectors will start their initial data taking runs, followed by the commissioning of the advanced Virgo gravitational wave observatory in Europe. The sensitivity of the aLIGO detector will be ramped up to become about ten times better than that of the first-generation detectors, opening up a spatial volume for observing GW sources that will be 1000 times larger than before. This award supports the first searches of Advanced LIGO data for gravitational waves from the youngest neutron stars in the galaxy. As they spin down over the years, these stars can tell us about the properties of matter under the most extreme conditions since the Big Bang: supernuclear densities, relativistic speeds, superconducting and superfluid at a hundred million degrees. One day they may also be used to test whether Einstein's general theory of relativity is the correct description of gravity at astrophysical scales.The bulk of the work involves the upgrade and implementation of a data analysis code pipeline to perform matched filtering searches for continuous gravitational waves from young supernova remnants. Improvements in the code and data will allow more sensitive searches than ever before. This code will also be adapted for the purpose of detector characterization to assist with improving the LIGO interferometers' performance over the course of their first science run, particularly with regard to narrow-band spectral artifacts.