Development of a high-capacity data analysis system for LIGO gravitational wave detection

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is an NSF-funded project to detect gravitational waves. The Center for Gravitation and Cosmology at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (UWM) is member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), and participates actively in the LIGO-I development group. Current LSC research activities at UWM are related to the analysis of LIGO data. These activities include the development of methods to characterize and clean the raw data stream (removing instrumental and environmental anomalies), and testing of algorithms to search for gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. This action provides funds for the construction of a Beowulf-computer system at UWM for LIGO-related data analysis and code development. The proposed system is a parallel computer composed of 128 nodes (plus 5 spares) connected by high-speed networking. The system is available, through online network connections, to a broad group of scientists within the LSC, including experimentalists, theorists, and astrophysicists. The system is designed for rapid-turnaround data exploration and code development work. A representative data set (days or weeks of data) is kept on disks of 10 Terabytes capacity where it can be rapidly accessed. The complete system provides an environment with sufficient aggregate CPU power (~ 200 Gflops) for algorithm and code developers to carry out extensive exploration and testing on LIGO data.