NANOGrav@UPRM: Growing and Characterizing the NANOGrav Gravitational-Wave Detector

NANOGrav@UPRM：NANOGrav 引力波探测器的发展和表征

• 批准号: 2216793
• 负责人: Henri Radovan
• 金额: $ 52.06万
• 依托单位: University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez
• 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: 2022-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2216793&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NANOGrav; UPRM; Growing; Characterizing; Gravitational

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project partners the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez (UPRM) with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), an international scientific collaboration comprising several dozen institutions. The goals are (i) to increase the U.S. workforce diversity by promoting research and education of Hispanic/Latino undergraduate students in physics, and (ii) to advance several key NANOGrav science goals. The activities are tailored to retain physics students, to train them in forefront physics research, and to motivate them to enter graduate school by way of a series of educational and closely supervised research projects. NANOGrav uses a galaxy-sized detector of pulsars that emit radio pulses with atomic-clock precision. The arrival times of those pulses are recorded with world-leading radio telescopes across the U.S. and Canada. NANOGrav searches for correlated changes in the arrival times, induced by ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves, that are expected to be emitted by extremely massive black holes at the cores of merging galaxies. UPRM students will be trained in a variety of data quality and analysis methods, as well as simulation techniques and astrophysical interpretation by several NANOGrav senior scientists. Besides nurturing the talent and fostering the participation of minorities, NANOGrav will directly benefit from the research by expanding and characterizing the array of pulsars. It is this so-called pulsar timing array that will detect gravitational waves and characterize their sources and hence contribute to our understanding of the history of the Universe and our place in it. A holistic approach is implemented, where the students will be immersed in remote educational programs, present NANOGrav's research activities at local high schools, participate in workshops organized locally and on the U.S. mainland, take part in research projects, and spend several weeks at a NANOGrav institution contributing to daily ongoing research activities.This award partners the Physics Department at the Mayagüez campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPRM) with the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) Physics Frontiers Center to advance several key NANOGrav science goals and to increase the participation and retention of minorities in the field of physics. NANOGrav’s mission is to detect and characterize low-frequency gravitational waves from merging supermassive black hole binaries using a pulsar timing array as a galactic-scale detector. Low-frequency gravitational-wave detection and characterization will provide information on galaxy merger rates, supermassive black hole masses, and processes leading to black hole coalescence. Characterization of individual pulsars of the array in turn yields information on, e.g., neutron star masses, equations of state, populations, and astrometric data; tests of general relativity; interstellar electron distributions; solar wind properties; and pulsar emission mechanisms. Undergraduate students from UPRM will be involved in research projects of relevance to NANOGrav's mission, mentored at UPRM as well as remotely and onsite at several NANOGrav institutions. The research will involve searching for new pulsars, data quality checks, pulsar simulation development, and characterizing pulsar emission properties. The students will participate in workshops at UPRM, the Arecibo Observatory, and other NANOGrav sites, as well as to attend general NANOGrav and training meetings on the mainland. The planned research activities are focused on growing and characterizing the pulsar timing array. The sensitivity of the array is proportional to the number of pulsars and hence finding new pulsars is of fundamental importance. It has also been observed that some pulsars change emission properties, which limits their timing resolution and usefulness in the array and therefore an investigation of pulsar emission and accompanying interstellar medium effects will provide a valuable contribution to NANOGrav science.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.

该奖项是根据2021年《美国救援计划法》（公法117-2）全部或部分资助的。该项目合作于波多黎各大学玛雅格斯大学（UPRM）与北美纳米尔茨重力浪潮（Nanograv）（Nanograv），这是一项国际科学合作，完成了数十家机构。目标是（i）通过促进西班牙裔/拉丁裔本科生的研究和教育来提高美国的劳动力多样性，以及（ii）促进几个关键的Nanograv科学目标。这些活动的量身定制是为了保留物理学生，在最前沿的物理研究中训练他们，并激励他们通过一系列教育和严格监督的研究项目进入研究生院。 Nanograv使用了脉冲星的星系尺寸检测器，该检测器以原子锁定精度发出无线电脉冲。这些脉冲的到达时间记录在美国和加拿大的世界领先的射电望远镜中。 Nanograv搜索到达时间的相关变化，这是由时空中的波纹引起的称为重力波的引起的，预计在合并星系的核心处，它们会通过极大的黑洞发出。 UPRM学生将接受多种数据质量和分析方法的培训，以及几位Nanograv高级科学家的模拟技术和天体物理解释。除了护理人才和培养少数民族的参与外，Nanograv还将通过扩大和描述脉冲星数组来直接从研究中受益。正是这种所谓的脉冲星定时阵列将检测引力波并表征它们的来源，因此有助于我们对宇宙历史及其在其中的地位的理解。实施了一种整体方法，在该方法中，学生将沉浸在远程教育计划中，在当地的高中展示Nanograv的研究活动，参加在当地和美国组织的研讨会，参加研究项目，参加研究项目，并在纳米格拉夫（Nanograv）的机构中度过了数周，为每日持续的研究活动做出了贡献。 Nanohertz引力波（Nanograv）物理边界中心，以促进几个关键的纳米分校科学目标，并增加少数民族在物理领域的参与和保留。 Nanograv的任务是检测和表征低频引力波，通过使用脉冲星的定时阵列作为银河尺度检测器合并超大质量黑洞二进制。低频引力波检测和表征将提供有关星系合并速率，超大黑洞质量以及导致黑洞结合的过程的信息。阵列单个脉冲星的表征反过来会产生信息，例如中子星质量，状态方程，种群和星体数据；一般相对性的测试；星际电子分布；太阳风特性；和脉冲星排放机制。来自UPRM的本科生将参与与Nanograv的任务相关的研究项目，该项目在UPRM以及远程和现场的多个Nanograv机构进行了指导。该研究将涉及寻找新的脉冲星，数据质量检查，脉冲星模拟开发以及表征脉冲星发射特性。学生将参加UPRM，Arecibo天文台和其他Nanograv地点的研讨会，并参加大陆的Nanograv将军和培训会议。计划的研究活动的重点是增长和表征脉冲星的时间阵列。阵列的敏感性与脉冲星的数量成正比，因此找到新的脉冲星是至关重要的。 It has also been observed that some pulsars change emission properties, which limits their timing resolution and usefulness in the array and therefore an investigation of pulsar emission and participating interstellar medium effects will provide a valuable contribution to NANOGrav science.This award reflects NSF's Statutory mission and has been deemed precious of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.