Gravitational Wave Data Analysis: Inferring the Properties of Compact Objects and Searching for New Physics

本研究项目致力于引力波的分析和模拟。当宇宙中密度最大的物体--如黑洞和中子星--绕轨道运行并碰撞时，时空结构中的这些涟漪就会产生。由NSF资助的LIGO和欧洲处女座合作探测到的引力波打开了一扇了解宇宙的新窗口，揭示了以前看不见的事件，如黑洞对合并。该奖项支持的研究人员将作为LIGO合作的成员参与引力波的分析，帮助推断这些涟漪来源的特性。除了这些对天体物理、宇宙学和核物理产生深远影响的合作活动外，研究小组还将利用引力波数据搜索新的物理。对引力波的探测提供了关于时空最动态的信息，允许对相对论进行强场测试，因为它有可能探测到电磁观测看不到的极其致密的物体。这一奖项将使人们能够搜索来自新的、假设的致密恒星的引力波，并利用合并的黑洞的最终“环化”来搜索新的物理。这些研究活动将为研究生提供建模和数据分析方面的培训，这些技能需求很大，对社会有很大的好处。此外，该小组的成员将开展外联活动，以教育和启发公众了解这一新的物理和天文学领域。该项目特别侧重于利用引力波探测寻找新的物理，同时继续支持LIGO科学合作，对合作的下一次观测活动中的探测进行贝叶斯参数估计。PI和小组其他成员将参与参数估计管道的规划和开发，并对低延迟检测进行推断。这些推论是利用引力波了解致密天体的数量、从双中子星的观测推断核状态方程、测试相对论以及使用引力波测量宇宙膨胀的关键第一步。该项目还将包括开发精确的降维波形模型，以便能够搜索具有大自旋诱导四极矩的低质量致密天体。目前的搜索可能会错过这样的假想天体，它们的发现将揭示奇异的新物理学。将使用GstLAL搜索管道和随机模板库在公开可用的数据中对这些系统进行搜索。该团队还将使用借用量子力学微扰理论的方法来预测可能的相对论偏差是如何印记在旋转黑洞的环形光谱上的。在预测了特定偏差引起的频谱变化后，贝叶斯参数估计将被用来约束或测量这些模型的基本参数，使用之前检测到的二元黑洞合并的振铃信号。这一裁决反映了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 research project is devoted to the analysis and modeling of gravitational waves. These ripples in the very fabric of space and time are produced when the densest objects in the Universe -- such as black holes and neutron stars -- orbit and collide. The detection of gravitational waves by the NSF-funded LIGO and European Virgo collaborations has opened up a new window on the Universe, revealing previously invisible events like pairs of black holes merging. Researchers supported by this award will participate in the analysis of gravitational waves as members of the LIGO collaboration, helping to infer the properties of the sources of these ripples. In addition to these collaboration activities, which have far-reaching impacts on astrophysics, cosmology, and nuclear physics, the research group will carry out searches for new physics using gravitational-wave data. Detections of gravitational waves provide information about spacetime at its most dynamic, allowing for strong-field tests of relativity, as the possibility of detecting extremely compact objects which are otherwise invisible to electromagnetic observations. This award will enable both searches for gravitational waves from new, hypothetical compact stars, and use the final "ringdown" of merged black holes to search for new physics. These research activities will provide training for graduate students in modeling and data analysis, skillsets which are in great demand and of great benefit to society. In addition, members of the group will engage in outreach activities in order to educate and inspire the public about this new field of physics and astronomy.In particular, this project focuses on searching for new physics with gravitational wave detections, while continuing to support the LIGO Scientific Collaboration by performing Bayesian parameter estimation on detections made in the collaboration's next observing campaign. The PI and other members of the group will participate in the planning and development of parameter estimation pipelines, and carry out inferences on detections made in low latency. These inferences are a crucial first step in the use of gravitational waves for understanding the populations of compact objects, inferring the nuclear equation of state from observations of binary neutron stars, testing the theory of relativity, and using gravitational waves to measure cosmic expansion. The project will also include the development of accurate, reduced-dimensional waveform models to enable the search for low-mass compact objects with large spin-induced quadrupole moments. Such hypothetical objects can be missed by current searches, and their detection would reveal exotic new physics. The GstLAL search pipeline and random template banks will be used to carry out searches for these systems in publicly available data. The team will also use methods borrowed from quantum mechanical perturbation theory to predict how possible deviations from relativity are imprinted on the ringdown spectrum of spinning black holes. After predicting the changes to the spectrum from particular deviations, Bayesian parameter estimation will be used to constrain or measure the underlying parameters of these models using ringdown signals from previously detected binary black hole mergers.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.