Improving NANOGrav Gravitational Wave Detection

我们预计，我们的宇宙充满了来自星系中心相互环绕的超大质量黑洞(质量是太阳的数百万到数十亿倍)的引力波。这些波与LIGO最先探测到的引力波不同，因为它们是连续的，而不是以脉冲形式到来的，而且它们的频率非常低，往往需要几年时间才能完成一个周期。这些低频引力波是北美纳赫兹引力波天文台(NANOGrav)的目标。奥勒姆教授和他的团队将致力于改进用于分析NANOGrav观测的数学和计算程序。这项工作将帮助NANOGrav首次探测到低频引力波并确定其来源。奥勒姆教授还将在高中进行公开演讲和演讲，将引力波天文学的兴奋带给更广泛的公众。这项工作的目的是通过新的数学技术和改进的代码提高NANOGrav合作探测引力波的能力。这些增强将增加NANOGrav数据分析的重要性，可能会将其推到合作可以自信地声称发现了引力波的随机背景的水平之上。更快的代码将使人们有可能更仔细地检查可能的“假警报”，并更容易探索可能从脉冲星计时观测中提取重要信号的新想法。这些技术还可能有助于探测到第一个单独的低频引力波来源，预计是附近的一个超大质量黑洞双星，其信号突出在背景之上。这一奖项反映了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。

We expect that our universe is filled with gravitational waves coming from pairs of supermassive black holes (with millions to billions of times the mass of the sun) orbiting each other at the centers of galaxies. These waves are different from the gravitational waves detected first by LIGO, because they are continuous, rather than coming in bursts, and they have very low frequencies, often taking several years to complete a cycle. These low-frequency gravitational waves are the target of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational waves (NANOGrav). Professor Olum and his group will work to improve the mathematical and computational procedures used to analyze NANOGrav observations. This work will help NANOGrav make the first detection of low-frequency gravitational waves and determine their sources. Professor Olum will also give public presentations, and lectures in high schools, to bring the excitement of gravitational wave astronomy to the broader public.The purpose of this work is to enhance the ability of the NANOGrav collaboration to detect gravitational waves through new mathematical techniques and improved codes. These enhancements will increase the significance of NANOGrav data analysis, possibly pushing it above the level at which the collaboration can confidently claim a discovery of a stochastic background of gravitational waves. Faster codes will make it possible to check more carefully for possible "false alarms" and easier to explore new ideas that may extract important signals from the pulsar timing observations. These techniques may also contribute to the detection of the first individual source of low-frequency gravitational waves, expected to be a nearby supermassive black hole binary whose signal stands out above the background.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.