Maximizing Science Output of LIGO: Improved Detectors and Data Analysis

这是一个支持激光干涉引力波天文台（LIGO）的研究项目，旨在通过制定改进LIGO探测器的战略以及开发和实施分析LIGO数据的新方法，最大限度地提高其科学产出。该项目将：（i）有助于精密测量技术的进步，（ii）使LIGO能够加深我们对广义相对论的理解，（iii）在引力和量子物理学之间的界面上推动实验物理学的前沿。该项目将由加州理工学院相对论（CaRT）小组进行，并将作为年轻物理学家和天体物理学家的培训基地，教授他们各种各样的研究技术。 CaRT的成员还将开展广泛的活动，接触更广泛的科学界和公众。更具体地说，该项目将包括四个方向。(A)它将制定和评估提高LIGO灵敏度的创新方法，研究如何升级先进的LIGO探测器，并发明新的量子计量技术用于未来的探测器。该计划还将探索引力波（GW）探测的新方法，探索人类大小物体的量子行为，并在量子领域为宏观物体寻找新的物理学。(B)光谱爱因斯坦代码（SpEC）的数值相对论二元黑洞模拟将用于LIGO数据分析：（i）LIGO探测的后续模拟将用于验证唯象波形模型的准确性，探索这些模型的参数偏差，并根据需要执行替代参数估计策略;及（ii）替代波形模型，即在数值相关性波形之间进行插值，以产生所需参数的波形，达到高精度，将被应用于LAL，并用于GW 150914的参数估计研究，GW 151226和未来事件。 (C)更有效的搜索算法将被设计用于LIGO对连续引力波的搜索，部分是通过适当地综合这一领域的几个最新发展。(D)广义相对论的各个方面将使用LIGO数据进行测试和演示，包括：重建引力波的色散关系，通过测量潮汐耦合探测黑洞的结构，检测记忆效应，以及从探测到的事件集合中寻找广义相对论的广义偏差。

This is a research project in support of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), aimed at maximizing its scientific output, by the formulation of strategies for improving LIGO detectors and the development and implementation of new ways to analyze LIGO data. This project will: (i) contribute to the advancement of precision measurement technology, (ii) allow LIGO to deepen our understanding of general relativity, and (iii) push the frontier of experimental physics at the interface between gravitational and quantum physics. This project will be carried out by the Caltech Relativity Theory (CaRT) group and will serve as a training ground for young physicists and astrophysicists, by teaching them a wide variety of research techniques. Members of the CaRT will also pursue a wide range of activities that reach out to the broader scientific community and the general public.More specifically, this project will consists of four directions. (A) It will formulate and evaluate innovative approaches to improving LIGO's sensitivity, by studying how Advanced LIGO detectors should be upgraded, and by inventing new quantum metrology techniques for use in future detectors. The program will also explore new approaches to gravitational wave (GW) detection, and explore the quantum behavior of human-sized objects, and search for new physics for macroscopic objects in the quantum regime. (B) Numerical relativity binary black hole simulations from the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC) will be used for LIGO data analysis: (i) Simulations following up on LIGO detections will be used to verify the accuracy of phenomenological waveform models, to explore parameter biases of these models, and to perform alternative parameter estimation strategies as needed; and (ii) Surrogate waveform models, which interpolate between numerical relativity waveforms to produce a waveform at requested parameters to high accuracy, will be implemented into LAL and be used in parameter estimation studies on GW150914, GW151226, and future events. (C) More efficient search algorithms will be designed for LIGO searches for continuous gravitational waves, in part by appropriately synthesizing several recent developments in this area. (D) Aspects of general relativity will be tested and demonstrated using LIGO data, including: reconstructing the dispersion relation of gravitational waves, probing the structure of black holes via measuring tidal coupling, detecting the memory effect, and search for general deviations from general relativity, from an ensemble of detected events.