Advanced LIGO Search for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Isolated and Binary Neutron Stars

先进的 LIGO 搜索来自孤立中子星和双中子星的连续引力波

• 批准号: 1505932
• 负责人: J. Keith Riles
• 金额: $ 99万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2020-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1505932&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Advanced; LIGO; Search; Continuous; Gravitational

The General Theory of Relativity discovered by Einstein tells us that the familiar, everyday force of gravity is a manifestation of something much stranger: the bending of the geometry of space-time by matter. Among the key predictions of the theory is the existence of gravitational waves: ripples moving at the speed of light in the geometry of space-time caused by the fast motion of large masses. Although well tested in terms of their indirect effects on binary systems of compact stars, the direct detection of gravitational waves incident on Earth poses an outstanding challenge. The scientific rewards from achieving this ability would be enormous - ranging from probing the extreme dynamics of exploding stars to gleaning information about the state of the Universe almost at the moment of the Big Bang itself. The effort to enable this new window on the universe has occupied several decades of experimental and technological developments that have pushed the boundaries across diverse fields in the physical sciences. The detection of continuous gravitational waves from rotating neutron stars would be especially interesting because many such sources are expected to continue emitting for long durations, allowing follow-up investigation of increasing precision, and because it is believed that these waves will provide insight into the poorly known structure of these exotic stars. The research to be carried out, on both the instrumental and analytical sides, will provide training to undergraduate and graduate students in state-of-the-art science at the frontier of knowledge.Research will focus on a number of specific areas related to the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO) Experiment: 1) co-leading the ongoing LIGO Scientific Collaboration's search for continuous gravitational waves; 2) carrying out searches for those waves from both isolated and binary neutron stars using programs developed previously by the University of Michigan gravitational waves group; 3) developing new search algorithms with improved sensitivity and computational efficiency; and 4) detector characterization of Advanced LIGO interferometers focused on spectral line identification and mitigation.

爱因斯坦发现的相对论的一般理论告诉我们，熟悉的，每天的重力力量是陌生人事物的一种体现：当时时空的几何形状的弯曲。该理论的关键预测是重力波的存在：涟漪以光的速度移动，这是由于大质量快速运动引起的时空几何形状。尽管根据其对紧凑型恒星的二元系统的间接影响进行了良好的测试，但直接检测到地球上的重力波却带来了出色的挑战。从实现这一能力中获得的科学奖励将是巨大的 - 从探测爆炸恒星的极端动态到在大爆炸本身时几乎几乎在收集有关宇宙状态的信息。使宇宙上这个新窗口的努力占据了数十年的实验和技术发展，这已经推动了物理科学领域的界限。从旋转中子星来检测连续的重力波将特别有趣，因为预计许多这样的来源将在长时间内继续发射，从而可以对提高精度的随访研究，并且由于人们认为这些波浪将洞悉这些外来恒星的鲜为人知的结构。在仪器和分析方面进行的研究将为知识前沿的最先进科学的本科生和研究生提供培训。研究将重点关注与先进的激光干涉仪重仪重力波动仪式（高级LIGO）实验相关的许多特定领域。 2）使用密歇根大学重力波小组以前开发的程序进行搜索从孤立和二进制中子星的搜索； 3）开发具有提高灵敏度和计算效率的新搜索算法； 4）探测器的表征，用于光谱线识别和缓解措施的高级LIGO干涉仪。