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

合作研究：WoU-MMA：打开多信使天体物理学的红外窗口

• 批准号: 2206731
• 负责人: Robert Simcoe
• 金额: $ 24.28万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2206731&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; WoU; MMA; Opening

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.

在大多数人类历史上，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量中微子实验已获得了从遥远的宇宙爆炸中的时空扰动和颗粒的首次直接检测，与使用可见光的瞬态观察相吻合。多门体天体物理学的新兴学科结合了引力波，中微子和光中的信息，每个人都探测了不同的物理规模和过程，以揭示极端宇宙事件的物理，这些事件测试了我们对强力的理解以及恒星的最终阶段。该项目将向时间域调查开放相对未开发的红外天空。敏感的宽场红外望远镜，宽田红外的瞬态探险家，冬季在帕洛马尔天文台，将专用于多门生天体物理学。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高中生以及用于夏季项目的高中老师。该项目计划与妇女和代表性不足的少数群体合作多种多样性倡议。该项目将实现三个科学目标。 首先，将在Ligo/Wigo第四重力波观察奔跑期间，对红外对应物进行红外线对应物，并在Ligo/处女座的第四引力波中进行二进制中子星星合并和中子星黑洞合并。 冬季红外搜索的优点是，预计发射无处不在，并且受到视角，质量比，残余寿命和不透明度分布的影响较小。表征对应物将揭示有关合成的重元素的信息。 其次，将对来自ICECUBE的高能量中微子触发器的红外搜索进行搜索。第三，将对最大恒星的出色合并进行搜索，以得出完整的光度函数和速率估计。在这个共同的包膜阶段的洞察力将对恒星进化的许多分支有影响，包括多门祖先祖细胞系统。 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.