Calibration of Advanced LIGO Data

该奖项支持高级LIGO数据的校准。校准是引力波数据分析必不可少的第一步，因此也是LIGO关键路径的第一步。目前LIGO的灵敏度已经超过了最初的LIGO，计划于2015年底进行的第一次观测几乎比最初的LIGO好四倍。因此，在不久的将来探测到双星合并产生的引力波是很有可能的。经过一段时间的调试和观测运行后，先进的LIGO有望对引力波进行常规观测。这些首次探测将同时测试我们对基础物理学的理解，并为研究宇宙提供一种新的手段。该奖项支持开发和维护官方高级LIGO时域校准管道的工作。该管道将以亚秒级的延迟向引力波数据分析师提供校准数据。该团队将生成校准所需的数字滤波器，跟踪影响校准的仪器变化，开发零延迟校准系统，帮助生成校准误差预算，自动校准更新，并增加整个校准过程的鲁棒性。

This award supports the calibration of Advanced LIGO data. Calibration is the essential first step in the analysis of gravitational wave data, and therefore in the LIGO critical path. Current LIGO sensitivities have already surpassed those of Initial LIGO, and the first observing run scheduled for late 2015 is almost a factor of four better than Initial LIGO. A detection of gravitational waves from a binary coalescence in the near future is therefore a distinct possibility. After a period of commissioning and observing runs, Advanced LIGO is expected to observe gravitational waves routinely. These first detections will simultaneously test our understanding of fundamental physics and provide a new means to study the universe.This award supports work to develop and maintain the official Advanced LIGO time-domain calibration pipeline. This pipeline will deliver calibrated data with sub-second latencies to gravitational wave data analysts. The team will generate the digital filters required for the calibration, track changes in the instrument that affect the calibration, work on the development of a zero-latency calibration system, help produce the calibration error budget, automate calibration updates, and increase the robustness of the entire calibration procedure.