Calibration and analysis of LIGO data

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports activities related to analysis of the data collected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). Three lines of work are being supported: Calibration of the output of the LIGO instruments---a fundamental first step in the search for gravitational waves, searches for gravitational waves from neutron stars, and searches for gravitational waves from cosmic strings. The existence of gravitational waves is one of Einstein's most extraordinary predictions. The direct detection of gravitational waves will usher in a new era in astronomy and dramatically expand our knowledge of the universe. LIGO, a gravitational wave detector of unprecedented sensitivity, is poised to make the first detection. This work will make important contributions to the success of LIGO, and may ultimately lead to the discovery of gravitational waves. A major component of the research activities involves the use of Einstein@Home (which the PI helped to develop) maintained at the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee. Einstein@Home is a distributed computing effort that harnesses spare CPU cycles from computers around the world to search for gravitational waves in LIGO data. Einstein@Home is an extremely powerful gravitational wave search tool and also an outstanding outreach success, that has brought gravitational wave astronomy to the personal computers of more than 100,000 people around the world.