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
Abbott B
(2007)
Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves
in Physical Review D
Searle A
(2007)
Robust Bayesian detection of unmodelled bursts
Abbott B
(2007)
Search for gravitational wave radiation associated with the pulsating tail of the SGR 1806 - 20 hyperflare of 27 December 2004 using LIGO
in Physical Review D
Arun K
(2007)
Higher signal harmonics, LISA's angular resolution, and dark energy
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2007)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO data from the fourth science run
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2007)
Searches for periodic gravitational waves from unknown isolated sources and Scorpius X-1: Results from the second LIGO science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts from soft gamma repeaters.
in Physical review letters
Abbott B
(2008)
Publisher's Note: Upper limits on gravitational wave emission from 78 radio pulsars [Phys. Rev. D 76 , 042001 (2007)]
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Publisher's Note: Upper limit map of a background of gravitational waves [Phys. Rev. D 76 , 082003 (2007)]
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
First joint search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO and GEO 600 data
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
Beating the Spin-Down Limit on Gravitational Wave Emission from the Crab Pulsar
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves associated with 39 gamma-ray bursts using data from the second, third, and fourth LIGO runs
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Publisher's Note: All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data [Phys. Rev. D 77 , 022001 (2008)]
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Brady P
(2008)
Interpreting the results of searches for gravitational waves from coalescing binaries
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Astrophysically triggered searches for gravitational waves: status and prospects
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Robinson C
(2008)
Geometric algorithm for efficient coincident detection of gravitational waves
in Physical Review D
Searle A
(2008)
Robust Bayesian detection of unmodelled bursts
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Babak S
(2008)
The Mock LISA Data Challenges: from Challenge 1B to Challenge 3
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2008)
Search of S3 LIGO data for gravitational wave signals from spinning black hole and neutron star binary inspirals
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2008)
Implications for the Origin of GRB 070201 from LIGO Observations
in The Astrophysical Journal
Harry I
(2009)
Stochastic template placement algorithm for gravitational wave data analysis
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Erratum: All-sky search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data [Phys. Rev. D 77 , 022001 (2008)]
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
Abbott BP
(2009)
All-sky LIGO search for periodic gravitational waves in the early fifth-science-run data.
in Physical review letters
Searle A
(2009)
Bayesian detection of unmodeled bursts of gravitational waves
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Farr B
(2009)
Searching for binary coalescences with inspiral templates: detection and parameter estimation
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first year of the fifth LIGO science run
in Physical Review D
Sathyaprakash B
(2009)
Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology with Gravitational Waves
in Living Reviews in Relativity
Abbott B
(2009)
Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state
in New Journal of Physics
Buonanno A
(2009)
Comparison of post-Newtonian templates for compact binary inspiral signals in gravitational-wave detectors
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Arun K
(2009)
Massive black-hole binary inspirals: results from the LISA parameter estimation taskforce
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational waves from low mass binary coalescences in the first year of LIGO's S5 data
in Physical Review D
LIGO Scientific Collaboration & Virgo Collaboration
(2009)
An upper limit on the stochastic gravitational-wave background of cosmological origin.
in Nature
Biswas R
(2009)
The loudest event statistic: general formulation, properties and applications
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational wave ringdowns from perturbed black holes in LIGO S4 data
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
First LIGO search for gravitational wave bursts from cosmic (super)strings
in Physical Review D
Cadonati L
(2009)
Status of NINJA: the Numerical INJection Analysis project
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for high frequency gravitational-wave bursts in the first calendar year of LIGO's fifth science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in early S5 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Aylott B
(2009)
Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2009)
ERRATUM: "BEATING THE SPIN-DOWN LIMIT ON GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EMISSION FROM THE CRAB PULSAR" (2008, ApJ, 683, L45)
in The Astrophysical Journal
Fairhurst S
(2009)
Triangulation of gravitational wave sources with a network of detectors
in New Journal of Physics
Abbott B
(2009)
Search for gravitational waves from low mass compact binary coalescence in 186 days of LIGO's fifth science run
in Physical Review D
Abbott B
(2009)
LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Abbott B
(2009)
STACKED SEARCH FOR GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM THE 2006 SGR 1900+14 STORM
in The Astrophysical Journal
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 | 10/2010 |
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 |