Flexible Analysis of Gravitational Wave Data: Extracting Information from Unmodeled or Partially Modeled Sources and Mitigating Instrument Glitches

自2015年诞生以来，引力波天体物理学领域正在经历加速增长。这是引力波探测器灵敏度大幅提高的结果，也是解释探测器收集的数据的先进工具不断发展的结果。丰富的信号和信息给分析来自致密双星的进一步信号，如黑洞和中子星的碰撞，以及对预期的新信号的解释带来了新的挑战，这些信号可以通过更灵敏的探测器获得。一个这样的例子涉及探测器中的噪声伪影，它可能与天体物理信号同时发生，并危及我们解释它们的能力。在对天体物理信号进行任何进一步分析之前，必须理解并理想地从数据中去除这种噪声伪影。该项目旨在通过灵活的数据分析技术解决这些新出现的挑战，这些技术可以处理大量预期的探测器噪声伪影和尚未看到的信号。该项目涉及在LIGO第四次观测运行期间使用灵活的、不依赖于形态的分析进行数据分析，以及开发新的分析来解释预期的信号，如中子星双星的激发发射和合并后发射。关于前者，过去的经验表明，第四次观测期间预期的探测率的提高将导致更多的天体物理信号与仪器故障重叠的情况。该项目旨在改进LIGO和处女座合作已经使用的技术，以便对还包括感兴趣的天体物理信号的数据提供更有效的毛刺减去。关于后者，该项目将探索能够分析我们缺乏精确波形模板的部分建模信号的“混合”数据分析技术。目的是分析和提取携带有关中子星状态方程的重要信息的信号，例如中子星合并。这些活动的结果将有助于分析LIGO/Virgo数据以提取天体物理信息，以及满足探测器提高灵敏度的需求的新技术。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。

The field of gravitational wave astrophysics is experiencing accelerating growth since its birth in 2015. This is the outcome of large improvements in the sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors as well as the continued development of advanced tools to interpret the data the detectors collect. The wealth of signals and information brings new challenges to be addressed both in the analysis of further signals from compact binaries, such as colliding black holes and neutron stars, and in the interpretation of anticipated novel signals made accessible with more sensitive detectors. One such example concerns noise artifacts in the detectors that can occur at the same time as astrophysical signals and jeopardize our ability to interpret them. Such noise artifacts have to be understood and ideally removed from the data before any further analysis of the astrophysical signals. This project aims to address some of these emerging challenges with flexible data analysis techniques that can handle the large expected variety of detector noise artifacts and yet unseen signals. This project concerns the use of flexible, morphology-independent analyses for data analysis during the fourth observing run of LIGO as well as the development of novel analyses for the interpretation of anticipated signals such as inspiral and post merger emission from neutron star binaries. Regarding the former, past experience indicates that the increased rate of detection expected during the fourth observing run will result in more instances of astrophysical signals overlapping with instrumental glitches. This project aims to improve upon the techniques already utilized by the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations to provide more efficient glitch subtraction on data that also include an astrophysical signal of interest. Regarding the latter, this project will explore ``hybrid" data analysis techniques capable of analyzing partially modeled signals for which we lack exact waveform templates. The aim is to analyze and extract information from signals such as neutron star mergers that carry important information about the neutron star equation of state. The result of these activities will facilitate analyses of LIGO/Virgo data for extraction of astrophysical information as well as novel techniques to meet the demands of the detector improved sensitivity.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.