Collaborative Research: WoU-MMA: Opening the Infrared Window into Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

在人类历史的大部分时间里，光一直是天文学家研究遥远宇宙中物体性质的唯一工具。最近，引力波干涉仪和高能中微子实验首次实现了对时空扰动和来自遥远宇宙爆炸的粒子的直接探测，这与使用可见光进行的瞬态观测相一致。多信使天体物理学的新兴学科结合了来自引力波，中微子和光的信息，每个探测不同的物理尺度和过程，以揭示极端宇宙事件的物理学，这些事件考验了我们对强引力和恒星末期的理解。该项目将开放相对未经探索的红外天空进行时域调查。位于帕洛马天文台的一台灵敏的宽视场红外望远镜-Wide-Field Intermittent Explorer，WINTER将专门用于多信使天体物理学。该计划将包括研究生，博士后学者，夏季项目和高级论文的本科生，以及夏季项目的高中生和高中教师。该项目计划与多种多样的举措合作，深入妇女和代表性不足的少数群体。该项目将追求三个科学目标。 首先，在LIGO/Virgo第四次引力波观测运行期间，将对中子星星合并和中子星星黑洞合并的红外对应物进行搜索。 WINTER红外搜索的优点是，预测的辐射是普遍存在的，受视角，质量比，剩余寿命和不透明度分布的影响很小。表征对应物将揭示关于合成的重元素的信息。 其次，将从ICECUBE中寻找高能中微子触发器的红外对应物。第三，寻找最大质量恒星的恒星合并，以获得一个完整的光度函数和速率估计。在这个共同的信封阶段的见解将对恒星演化的许多分支，包括多信使祖系统的影响。该项目将参与加州理工学院、加州州立大学、加州社区学院、麻省理工学院和帕萨迪纳联合学区。该项目推进了宇宙大创意之窗的目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

For most of human history, light has been the only tool available for astronomers to studythe nature of objects in the distant universe. Recently, gravitational wave interferometers and high energy neutrino experiments have achieved the first direct detection of spacetime perturbations and particles from distant cosmic explosions, coincident with conventional observation of transients using visible light. The emerging discipline of multi-messenger astrophysics combines information from gravitational waves, neutrinos and light each probing a different physical scale and process to unravel the physics of extreme cosmic events that test our understanding of strong gravity and the end stages of stars. This project will open the relatively unexplored infrared sky to time-domain surveys. A sensitive wide-field infrared telescope, the Wide-Field InfraRed Transient Explorer, WINTER, at Palomar Observatory will be dedicated to multi-messenger astrophysics. The program will include graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, undergraduate students for summer projects and senior theses, and high school students and high school teachers for summer projects. The project plans to work with multiple diversity initiatives reaching out to women and underrepresented minorities. Three scientific goals will be pursued by this project. Firstly, a search will be conducted for infrared counterparts to binary neutron star mergers and neutron star black hole mergers during the LIGO/Virgo fourth gravitational wave observing run. The advantage of WINTER's infrared search is that the emission is predicted to be ubiquitous and much less affected by viewing angle, mass ratio, remnant lifetime and opacity distribution. Characterizing the counterpart will reveal information regarding the heavy elements that were synthesized. Secondly, a search for infrared counterparts to high energy neutrino triggers from ICECUBE will be undertaken. Thirdly, a search for stellar mergers of the most massive stars will be made to derive a complete luminosity function and rate estimate. Insights during this common envelope phase will have implications on many branches of stellar evolution, including multi-messenger progenitor systems. The project will participate in existing diversity initiatives for undergraduate and high school students at Caltech, California State University, California Community Colleges, MIT and the Pasadena Unified School District.The project advances the goals of the Windows on the Universe Big Idea.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.