Maximizing Science Output of LIGO: Improved Detectors and Data Analysis

California Institute Of Technology, Pasadena CA

Investigators

Abstract

This is a research project in support of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), aimed at maximizing its scientific output, by the formulation of strategies for improving LIGO detectors and the development and implementation of new ways to analyze LIGO data. This project will: (i) contribute to the advancement of precision measurement technology, (ii) allow LIGO to deepen our understanding of general relativity, and (iii) push the frontier of experimental physics at the interface between gravitational and quantum physics. This project will be carried out by the Caltech Relativity Theory (CaRT) group and will serve as a training ground for young physicists and astrophysicists, by teaching them a wide variety of research techniques. Members of the CaRT will also pursue a wide range of activities that reach out to the broader scientific community and the general public. More specifically, this project will consists of four directions. (A) It will formulate and evaluate innovative approaches to improving LIGO's sensitivity, by studying how Advanced LIGO detectors should be upgraded, and by inventing new quantum metrology techniques for use in future detectors. The program will also explore new approaches to gravitational wave (GW) detection, and explore the quantum behavior of human-sized objects, and search for new physics for macroscopic objects in the quantum regime. (B) Numerical relativity binary black hole simulations from the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC) will be used for LIGO data analysis: (i) Simulations following up on LIGO detections will be used to verify the accuracy of phenomenological waveform models, to explore parameter biases of these models, and to perform alternative parameter estimation strategies as needed; and (ii) Surrogate waveform models, which interpolate between numerical relativity waveforms to produce a waveform at requested parameters to high accuracy, will be implemented into LAL and be used in parameter estimation studies on GW150914, GW151226, and future events. (C) More efficient search algorithms will be designed for LIGO searches for continuous gravitational waves, in part by appropriately synthesizing several recent developments in this area. (D) Aspects of general relativity will be tested and demonstrated using LIGO data, including: reconstructing the dispersion relation of gravitational waves, probing the structure of black holes via measuring tidal coupling, detecting the memory effect, and search for general deviations from general relativity, from an ensemble of detected events.