Optical follow-up of gravitational-wave events in the Southern hemisphere: Development of the TOROS project software pipeline

南半球引力波事件的光学跟踪：TOROS 项目软件管道的开发

• 批准号: 2108400
• 负责人: Mario Diaz
• 金额: $ 41.44万
• 依托单位: The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-15 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2108400&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Optical; follow; up; gravitational; wave

The TOROS (Transient Optical Robotic Observatory of the South) project, developed by researchers at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, will observe and characterize transient optical light associated with the mergers of compact stellar objects such as pairs of neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole, while working in connection with ground-based gravitational wave detectors. During this research project, the team will fully develop, test and implement the software and pipelines required to successfully carry out the project. This work makes a critical contribution to the multi-messenger research infrastructure by enabling new capabilities in sky coverage with an improved sensitivity in the southern hemisphere at a modest cost. The rapid localization and accurate characterization of electromagnetic emission associated with astrophysical mergers can make significant contributions to the understanding of the production of heavy elements through nuclear processes. The associated gravitational wave information has the potential to yield estimates of the expansion rate of the Universe (the Hubble constant), which complement and are competitive with current techniques. Through a partnership with local school districts and a local amateur astronomical society, the research team will offer formal and informal educational opportunities in astronomy to college and high-school students (more than 92% of them Hispanic). Educational materials will be developed incorporating the images obtained from TOROS and other observatories. The students involved will acquire skills in data analysis, programming, and robotics, skills which are transferrable beyond the discipline of observational astronomy and will be applicable to any STEM field. Students enrolled in these classes will actively participate in the scientific enterprise. The partnership will also directly impact the general population of the Rio Grande Valley through public sessions at the Resaca de la Palma State Park observatory. The TOROS system will be a fully robotic facility. The software to be developed will be critical to integrate all instances of the scientific operation — from responding to gravitational-wave and transient alerts, to scheduling observations, processing the raw data and carrying out the initial analyses. The TOROS telescope and dome are already installed at Cordon Macon in the Argentine section of the Atacama plateau. A custom optical corrector and monolithic 10K×10K CCD camera, yielding a 1.9 square degree field of view sampled at 0.47”/pix, will be installed early in the project. This project advances the goals of the NSF 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.

TOROS（南方瞬态光学机器人天文台）项目由德克萨斯大学里奥格兰德河谷的研究人员开发，将观测和表征与致密恒星天体（如中子星对或中子对）合并相关的瞬态光学光。恒星和黑洞，同时与地面引力波探测器一起工作，在这个研究项目中，该团队将全面开发、测试和实施成功开展该项目所需的软件和管道。通过以适度的成本实现天空覆盖的新功能并提高南半球的灵敏度，将其应用于多信使研究基础设施中。与天体物理合并相关的电磁发射的快速定位和准确表征可以为理解其产生做出重大贡献。相关的引力波信息有可能产生宇宙膨胀率（哈勃常数）的估计，通过与当地学区和当地的合作，这对现有技术进行了补充和竞争。业余天文学会的研究团队将为大学生和高中生（其中超过 92% 是西班牙裔）提供正式和非正式的天文学教育机会，并将结合从 TOROS 和其他天文台获得的学生的图像来开发教育材料。将获得数据分析、编程和机器人方面的技能，这些技能可转移到观测天文学学科之外，并将适用于任何 STEM 领域。通过雷萨卡德拉帕尔马州立公园天文台的公开会议影响里奥格兰德河谷的普通民众 TOROS 系统将是一个完全机器人的设施，对于整合所有科学操作实例至关重要。 TOROS 望远镜和穹顶已安装在阿塔卡马高原阿根廷地区的 Cordon Macon，用于响应引力波和瞬变警报、安排观测、处理原始数据和进行初步分析。校正器和单片 10K×10K CCD 相机，以 0.47 英寸/像素采样，产生 1.9 平方度的视场，将在该项目的早期安装，以推进 NSF Windows 宇宙大构想的目标。该奖项反映了这一点。通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。