MRI: Development of high-performance computing facility for gravitational-wave data analysis

University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI

Investigators

Abstract

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is an NSF-funded project to detect gravitational waves. This award supports the design, development, construction, commissioning and operation of an enhanced computational facility to search the LIGO data stream for weak signals from astrophysical sources and instrumental anomalies. The enhanced facilities will (i) quadruple the computational capacity of the LIGO Tier-2 center at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) using cost-effective, high performance/price choices, (ii) more than double the storage capacity of the LIGO Tier-2 center at UWM, and (iii) provide a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection from the LIGO Tier-2 center at UWM to the campus backbone to remove communication bottlenecks from the LIGO Data Grid. The LIGO Tier-2 center at UWM is available to all members of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, including undergraduate and graduate students. Research activities will address issues in cyber-infrastructure and gravitational physics. The enhanced computational facilities will permit deeper and more intensive searches for a wider variety of signals, and may enable the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves. The instrument development under this award will have considerable impact on the education and training of undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral scientists at UWM and other institutions around the nation. Undergraduate students will be involved in both the instrument development and the associated research program providing exceptional hands-on training in large-scale distributed computing. Access to these computational facilities is also provided via the Open Science Grid for non-LIGO scientists thus adding to the national cyber-infrastructure for scientific research.