Improving NANOGrav Gravitational Wave Detection

改进 NANOGrav 引力波探测

• 批准号: 2207267
• 负责人: Ken Olum
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Tufts University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2207267&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Improving; NANOGrav; Gravitational; Wave; Detection; Improving; NANOGrav; Gravitational; Wave; Detection

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.

我们预计我们的宇宙充满了来自超级质量黑洞的重力波（数百万到数十亿到太阳的质量）在星系中心互相绕。 这些波与Ligo首先检测到的重力波不同，因为它们是连续的，而不是突发，并且它们的频率很低，通常需要几年的时间才能完成一个循环。 这些低频引力波是引力波（Nanograv）的北美纳米赫兹天文台的靶标。 Olum教授及其小组将努力改善用于分析纳米格拉夫观察结果的数学和计算程序。 这项工作将有助于Nanograv首次检测到低频引力波并确定其来源。 Olum教授还将在高中进行公开演讲和讲座，以将引力浪潮天文学的兴奋带给更广阔的公众。这项工作的目的是增强纳米格拉夫协作通过新的数学技术和改进的代码来检测引力波的能力。 这些增强功能将提高纳米格拉夫数据分析的重要性，这可能会将其推高到协作可以自信地要求发现引力波的随机背景的水平。 更快的代码将使您可以更仔细地检查可能的“错误警报”，并且更容易探索可能从脉冲星时定时观察中提取重要信号的新想法。 这些技术也可能有助于检测第一个单独的低频引力波，预计将是附近的超级质量黑洞二进制，其信号在背景之上脱颖而出。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子和宽广的影响来评估的支持，并被认为是值得的。