CAREER: Populations and Systematic Uncertainties in the Era of the Advanced Gravitational-Wave Detectors

该奖项支持相对论天体物理学的研究，并阐述了美国国家科学基金会“宇宙之窗”宏大构想的优先领域。引力波的探测为探索宇宙和宇宙中一些最迷人的现象开辟了新的途径。当两个致密物体，黑洞或中子星相撞时，它们发出的引力波编码了它们来源的属性，例如质量和自转。到目前为止，在NSF资助的LIGO天文台和处女座探测器的数据中已经发现了十几个双星黑洞和两个双星中子星合并。在接下来的五年里，我们预计每周探测到一个以上的双星黑洞源，每个月大约探测到一颗双星中子星。该项目将通过开发综合来自大量来源的信息的方法，对引力波数据进行广泛的科学利用。同时，它将处理系统误差的主要来源，否则可能会阻碍天体物理推断，限制其对科学界的有用性。除了能够可靠地分析引力波源的人口外，该项目还将增加服务不足的社区和代表不足的少数民族在STEM中的代表性。该项目包括一项针对高中教师的专业发展计划，该计划将针对低收入地区，让教师和他们的学生接触引力波天体物理学背后的主要思想，并突出许多以物理学位获得的可转移技能。鉴于未来几年将探测到数十到数百个紧凑双星系统，它们的充分利用将在关键物理和天体物理问题上结出硕果。如此丰富的检测系统，其中一些系统的信噪比很高，这既是一个机遇，也是一个挑战。为了充分利用现有数据，将需要复杂的数据分析算法和对系统误差的完全控制。这项工作有两个主要目标：(A)开发工具来描述致密双星群体的特征，同时说明边际源和某些触发因素可能不是来自天体物理来源的情况；(B)量化和减轻一类重要的系统误差的影响，这些系统误差是由引力波探测器校准引起的。因此，这项工作将推进引力波天体物理学中的关键问题，并有助于最大限度地提高LIGO和引力波探测器国际网络的科学产出。尽管在过去20年里取得了一些进展，但授予少数族裔学生，尤其是非裔美国人的物理学学士学位的比例仍然太低。造成这一低数字的原因很多，其中之一就是人们认为，物理学学位并不能为就业市场打开多少大门。该项目包括一项针对高中教师的专业发展计划，学校设在学生人均支出较低的地区。该计划将有两个主要目标：让教师和他们的学生接触广义相对论、引力波和天体物理学背后的主要思想，并直接从这个研究计划中提供可以直接从物理学学位转移到工业工作的想法和方法的例子。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports research in relativistic astrophysics and it addresses the priority areas of NSF's "Windows on the Universe" Big Idea. The detection of gravitational waves has opened new avenues to explore the universe and some of its most fascinating phenomena. When two compact objects, black holes or neutron stars, collide, they emit gravitational waves which encode the properties of their sources, for example masses and spins. To date, more than a dozen binary black hole and 2 binary neutron star mergers have been found in the data of the NSF-funded LIGO observatories and the Virgo detector. Over the next five years, we expect to detect more than one binary black hole source per week, and roughly one binary neutron star per month. This project will enable a broad scientific exploitation of gravitational-wave data by developing methods to combine information from a large number of sources. At the same time, it will deal with the main sources of systematic error, which might otherwise hinder astrophysical inference, limiting its usefulness for the scientific community. In addition to enabling a reliable analysis of the population of gravitational-wave sources, this project will also increase the representation of underserved communities and underrepresented minorities in STEM. The project includes a professional development program for high school teachers which will target low-income areas and expose the teachers and their students to the main ideas behind gravitational-wave astrophysics and highlight the many transferable skills acquired with a physics degree.Given the tens to hundreds of compact binary systems that will be detected in the next few years, their full exploitation will bear fruit on key physics and astrophysics questions. Such a wealth of detected systems, some of which at large signal-to-noise ratio, constitutes both an opportunity and a challenge. To fully exploit the available data, sophisticated data analysis algorithms and a full control of systematic errors will be needed. The work has on two main goals: a) to develop tools to characterize the population of compact binaries while accounting for marginal sources and for the possibility that some triggers might not be of astrophysical origin and b) to quantify and mitigate the effect of an important type of systematic errors, those those arising from the calibration of the gravitational-wave detectors. The work will thus advance key questions in gravitational-wave astrophysics and help maximize the science output of LIGO and the international network of gravitational-wave detectors. Despite some progress over the last twenty years, the fraction of bachelor physics degrees awarded to students from under-represented minorities, and in particular African Americans, is still too low. Among the many factors that might contribute to these low numbers, is the perception that a degree in physics does not open many doors to the job market. The project includes a professional development program for high school teachers, with schools in districts with low per-pupil expenditure. The program will have two main goals: expose the teachers, and hence their students, to the main ideas behind general relativity, gravitational waves and astrophysics, and provide examples, directly from this research program, of ideas and methods that can be directly transferred from a physics degree to a job in industry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.