Gravitational Wave Astronomy: A New Window onto the Universe
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The past three years has been a period of great progress in gravitational waves. The LIGO-GEO network of interferometers, took science quality data over several science runs. The most recent data taking, the fifth science run began in November 2005 and will last until the end of 2007. At the start of this run the LIGO instruments all reached their design sensitivity goal. Currently, the LIGO network is capable of detecting the coalescence of binary neutron stars and binary black holes up to distances of 25 and 300 Mpc, respectively. With an expected rate of up to one BBH coalescence per year, there is a fighting chance that the first detections will take place during the current run. Recently, the LIGO, GEO600 and Virgo have reached an agreement to analyse their data jointly. This has paved the way for a global network of detectors that will observe the gravitational sky continuously over the next decade. A key theme of our research over the next 5 years is to add Virgo data to our analyses pipelines, thereby increasing both the detection efficiency and science throughput. The proposed research is focussed on maximising the discovery potential of GEO600, LIGO (and their upgrades to enhanced and advanced configuations) and Virgo, in some of which PPARC has made substantial investment for over a decade. Specifically, our goal is to search for binary neutron stars and binary black holes, supernovae, progenitors of gamma-ray bursts and other transients - sources that are expected to be the most promising for a first direct detection of gravitational waves. Our research programme will address two of the key science quesitions in the PPARC roadmap: (1) What is the Universe made of and how does it evolve? and (2) What are the laws of physics in extreme conditions?
Publications
Zhang T
(2017)
Effects of static and dynamic higher-order optical modes in balanced homodyne readout for future gravitational waves detectors
in Physical Review D
Van Den Broeck C
(2010)
Weak lensing effects in the measurement of the dark energy equation of state with LISA
in Physical Review D
Van Den Broeck C
(2009)
Template banks to search for compact binaries with spinning components in gravitational wave data
in Physical Review D
Tiwari V
(2018)
Constraining Black Hole Spins with Gravitational-wave Observations
in The Astrophysical Journal
Sutton P
(2010)
X-Pipeline: an analysis package for autonomous gravitational-wave burst searches
in New Journal of Physics
Slinker K
(2018)
Trumpet initial data for boosted black holes
in Physical Review D
Searle A
(2009)
Bayesian detection of unmodeled bursts of gravitational waves
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Searle A
(2007)
Robust Bayesian detection of unmodelled bursts
Searle A
(2008)
Robust Bayesian detection of unmodelled bursts
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Description | Development of data analysis pipeline for analysing GEO600 and LIGO data and theoretical research on modelling gravitational wave sources. |
Exploitation Route | Generic pattern recognition algorithms have applications in other fields of physics, biology and medicine. |
Sectors | Education |
Description | Royal Society University Research Fellowship |
Amount | £803,198 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 516002.K5869/R OG |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2007 |
End | 09/2014 |
Description | STFC Advanced Fellowship |
Amount | £548,111 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/H008438/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2010 |
End | 09/2015 |
Description | GEO600 |
Organisation | University of Glasgow |
Department | Physics and Astronomy Department |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Detector characterisation and data analysis; strategic plans, scientific motivation for improving detector sensitivity. |
Collaborator Contribution | Building the detector, maintaining the detector, detector characterisation and data analysis. |
Impact | A working gravitational wave detector, development of advanced technology for advanced and third generation detectors. |
Description | LIGO Scientific Collaboration |
Organisation | LIGO |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Search algorithms and software, data analysis and astrophysical interpretation, scientific motivation for improvement in detector sensitivity |
Collaborator Contribution | Building and maintaining the LIGO detectors |
Impact | Publications, conference plenaries, conference contributions |
Description | Black Hole Hunter |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This is an on-line game that is on display at every major/minor outreach activity undertaken by members of the 1000-strong LIGO Scientific Collaboration. It has been translated to German, French and Spain and attracts of 1000's of unique hits every year. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
Description | Can you hear black holes |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | AThis was a Royal Society Summer exhibition. An estimated 4000 people passed through our stand in 3 days. Exhibits were developed and in particular the online black hole hunger game was developed for the exhibition. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2008 |
Description | Gravity Beyond the Apple |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | A hands-on school show describing black holes and gravitational waves was developed and presented to 15 schools in the South Wales area. A hands-on school show; video interviews of some of the scientists that were used in the show. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2007,2008 |