Research
Gravitational waves and LIGO
The new observational science of gravitational-wave astrophysics is quickly developing, and is changing how we learn about a wide range of topics including black holes, neutron stars, and cosmology. The Advanced LIGO detectors, developed and operated by LIGO Laboratory, are at the forefront of this exciting field. Our research group advances astrophysical data analysis using data from gravitational-wave observatories, in close coordination with an international collaboration.
Searching for gravitational waves from the inspiral and merger of binary neutron stars and black holes
L-r: Propagation of gravitational waves (Image: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab);
LIGO Livingston, Virgo observatories (Images: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab, Virgo)
We are developing search pipelines that rapidly identify astrophysical signals in LIGO and Virgo data, establish their significance above the detector noise, and flag them for additional study. We are especially interested in improving the performance of those pipelines for detecting binary systems with highly spinning black holes.
Rapidly locating the source of a gravitational wave event on the sky, for observations with telescopes
Images l-r: Wen & Chen, 2010; Singer, 2013
Many astrophysical sources of transient gravitational waves will be accompanied by electromagnetic radiation, across the spectrum - radio, optical, X-ray, and gamma ray emission. In many cases, the radiation fades rapidly - in days, hours, or even minutes. We will use LIGO and Virgo data to rapidly locate sources in the sky, and alert our astronomical partners when and where to point their telescopes.
Studying the detailed properties of merging binary neutron stars and black holes using LIGO data
Images: LIGO Lab/LSC
Once a significant signal is established from a compact binary merger has been identified, we can extract the properties of the system by studying the detected gravitational waveform - the binary masses, the sky location, the distance, the orbital orientation, and even information about the spins of the binary component stars. We can build up a catalog of these observations to better understand the population of massive stars, binaries, and their evolution.
Understanding neutron star structure using gravitational waves from merging binary neutron stars
Neutron star - neutron star (Image: J. Centrella et al.)
Binary neutron stars lose orbital energy through gravitational radiation, and their orbit shrinks. They start tearing each other apart through tidal forces as they approach merger. The way this happens tells us about the structure of nuclear matter in the extreme conditions found in neutron stars, informing both fundamental nuclear physics and the astrophysics of these fascinating objects.
Searching for gravitational waves from galactic core-collapse supernovae, to understand the explosion mechanism
Images l-r: Chandra X-ray Observatory; C. Ott
A massive star in the Milky Way Galaxy will undergo core collapse every 30-50 years or so. Its central core will collapse into a compact star (neutron star and/or black hole), emitting a huge amount of energy in neutrinos and in gravitational waves. The shock from the collapse will propagate through the outer layers of the star, eventually blowing out those outer layers as a supernova with copious electromagnetic radiation. We hope to better understand the mechanism of the core collapse and the shock by studying the emitted gravitational waveforms. (With Caltech Theoretical AstroPhysics Including Relativity (TAPIR)).
Testing General Relativity using gravitational waves from merging binary neutron stars and black holes, and from continuous gravitational waves from pulsars
Image: black-holes.org
Gravitational waves come from regions of extremely strong, and rapidly changing, gravitational fields. The laws of gravity have yet to be tested in these extreme regimes, and there may be surprises. Einstein's General Relativity predicts how these waves couple to the matter at the source, how they propagate through space to us, and how they interact with our detectors. We aim to test these ideas and perhaps find evidence of physics "Beyond Einstein". (With Caltech Theoretical AstroPhysics Including Relativity (TAPIR) and JPL).
Searching for gravitational waves from the Big Bang and from the astrophysical background
Image: NASA/WMAP Science Team
The Big Bang probably produced copious gravitational waves (along with all of matter and radiation). The cosmic radiation from the Big Bang carries information about the universe, some 380,000 years after the Big Bang (before that, the light scattered from the hot plasma). The gravitational radiation has been travelling unimpeded since ~ 10-22 seconds after the Big Bang; so if we can detect it, it will tell us much about those first moments of the universe. The signals come from all over the sky, all frequencies, all the time; they merge together into a "stochastic background". Billions of years later, the first massive stars and binaries also produce an additional stochastic background. We aim to detect and study this.
Understanding the quirks of the advanced detectors
Image: LIGO Lab/LSC
Extracting very weak signals of gravitational waves from our noisy detectors is a great challenge. Fortunately, there are well-established techniques for optimally extracting weak signals from Gaussian, stationary noise in data. Unfortunately, the Initial LIGO detector noise was not very Gaussian or stationary. Much effort is required to overcome the effects of non-Gaussianity and non-stationarity, with varying degrees of success in Initial LIGO. As the Advanced LIGO detectors begin operation, we are working to rapidly understand, diagnose, and fix any detector misbehavior that may be corrupting the data. We refer to this as Detector Characterization and Data Quality studies.
Developing the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center
Duty cycle timelines for G1, H1, H2, L1, and V2
(Image: GWOSC)
The Gravitational-wave Open Science Center (GWOSC) provides access to data, software, documentation, and tutorials to work with publicly available gravitational-wave data. Scientists at all levels are using GWOSC both to get started working with data from LIGO, Virgo, GEO, and KAGRA, and for research projects at all levels. Members of our group work with an international collaboration to keep the data archive current and to further develop the available web services.
Applications of Reduced Order Modelling to Simulation of Gravitational Waveforms and Parameter Extraction
Image: LIGO Lab/LSC; see arxiv:1308.3565
Modelling gravitational-wave signals from astrophysical sources is a fundamental part of gravitational-wave astronomy. By comparing detector data to simulations of gravitational waves from our models, we can extract the rich astrophysical information encoded in the waves. However, simulating gravitational waves can take up to hundreds of thousands of CPU hours per simulation and we require millions in practice. We are developing novel "Reduced Order Modelling" (ROM) techniques to allow us simulate gravitational waves within milliseconds without loss of accuracy, which will enable us to rapidly extract astrophysical information from gravitational-wave signals in detector data. (With TAPIR).
