Advanced LIGO Operations Support
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Birmingham
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Most of our knowledge about the Universe at large has been derived from what scientists refer to as "electromagnetic radiation" - ranging from radio waves through infrared radiation and light, to X-rays and gamma rays. This has changed dramatically on September 14, 2015 when we directly detected for the first time ripples in space-time known as gravitational waves. The observation of the first gravitational-wave signal (GW150914) generated by the collision of two black holes has opened a new chapter in astronomy. We have discovered binary black holes, and learnt that every 15 minutes somewhere in the Universe two heavy stellar-mass black holes collide. In fact, since September 2015 we have observed nine more collisions of this kind and we are currently analysing a new set of data that contain approximately 40 candidate signals. On August 17, 2017 we observed GW170817, the first merger of a binary neutron star. Electro-magnetic radiation generated in the aftermath of the collision of the two neutron stars was then detected across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma-rays to radio waves, in possibly the most intense observational campaign of a single object in the history of astronomy. Another likely binary neutron star merger has been recently observed during the first part of the science run currently in progress.
The goal of this proposal is to continue to operate the LIGO instrument and use signals from merging black holes and neutron stars to learn more about the evolution of these objects, stars, matter in extreme conditions, and to test our understanding of gravity itself. We will be also begin to install and commission new technological solutions for the first upgrade of these instruments which should begin observing in 2024 and allow much weaker signals to be observed, enable studies and hopefully provide surprising discoveries.
The goal of this proposal is to continue to operate the LIGO instrument and use signals from merging black holes and neutron stars to learn more about the evolution of these objects, stars, matter in extreme conditions, and to test our understanding of gravity itself. We will be also begin to install and commission new technological solutions for the first upgrade of these instruments which should begin observing in 2024 and allow much weaker signals to be observed, enable studies and hopefully provide surprising discoveries.
Planned Impact
The group at the University of Birmingham and the consortium involved in this proposal has a strong and extensive track record in working with industry, in public outreach and schoolteacher CPD, which will continue throughout and beyond the period of the request. The consortium has transferred technical knowledge and will further do so to help company competitiveness and success, all feeding back into the UK economy. The UK economy will further benefit through the spinning off of new companies arising from the research or licensing out of the technology being developed.
We anticipate research developments, spinning off from the gravitational wave work to contribute to the grand challenge areas of health and wellbeing via developments of software algorithms which can help with removal of artifacts in scanning medical imaging devices and in the development of hardware which can lead to the differentiation of a variety of stem cells with major implications for medicine. More globally, as a spin-off from the gravitational waves work at Cardiff a Data Innovation Institute has been established to conduct fundamental research into the aspects of managing, analysing and interpreting massive volumes of textual and numerical information. This will benefit projects in a wide-ranging spectrum of disciplines including social, biological, life and engineering sciences.
Public outreach involving television, radio, science festivals, masterclasses and public lectures feature strongly in our present and proposed programmes and the legacy of the effort we have devoted to celebrate the international year of light - such as the development of a laser harp - fit well with the wider public outreach work we undertake in collaboration with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration on the physics of neutron stars, black holes and the Universe as a whole. Working with the Scottish government and Education Scotland members of the consortium will build on previous work contributing strongly to the curriculum for physics in Scotland by extending provision of CPD for schoolteachers in Scotland, producing videos and other material helping them to tackle the challenges introduced by the more interdisciplinary nature of the new school qualifications, and this support is very transportable to be used throughout the UK. The wide range of impact provided by the scale of our programme is excellent for the training of early career researchers and graduate students and we aim to ensure that all our young scientists have experience in these areas, enabling them to have access to a wide range of career opportunities.
We anticipate research developments, spinning off from the gravitational wave work to contribute to the grand challenge areas of health and wellbeing via developments of software algorithms which can help with removal of artifacts in scanning medical imaging devices and in the development of hardware which can lead to the differentiation of a variety of stem cells with major implications for medicine. More globally, as a spin-off from the gravitational waves work at Cardiff a Data Innovation Institute has been established to conduct fundamental research into the aspects of managing, analysing and interpreting massive volumes of textual and numerical information. This will benefit projects in a wide-ranging spectrum of disciplines including social, biological, life and engineering sciences.
Public outreach involving television, radio, science festivals, masterclasses and public lectures feature strongly in our present and proposed programmes and the legacy of the effort we have devoted to celebrate the international year of light - such as the development of a laser harp - fit well with the wider public outreach work we undertake in collaboration with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration on the physics of neutron stars, black holes and the Universe as a whole. Working with the Scottish government and Education Scotland members of the consortium will build on previous work contributing strongly to the curriculum for physics in Scotland by extending provision of CPD for schoolteachers in Scotland, producing videos and other material helping them to tackle the challenges introduced by the more interdisciplinary nature of the new school qualifications, and this support is very transportable to be used throughout the UK. The wide range of impact provided by the scale of our programme is excellent for the training of early career researchers and graduate students and we aim to ensure that all our young scientists have experience in these areas, enabling them to have access to a wide range of career opportunities.
Organisations
Publications
Abbott B
(2020)
A guide to LIGO-Virgo detector noise and extraction of transient gravitational-wave signals
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2020)
GW190425: Observation of a Compact Binary Coalescence with Total Mass ~ 3.4 M ?
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Abbott B
(2020)
Model comparison from LIGO-Virgo data on GW170817's binary components and consequences for the merger remnant
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Abbott B
(2021)
A Gravitational-wave Measurement of the Hubble Constant Following the Second Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott BP
(2020)
Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA.
in Living reviews in relativity
Abbott R
(2020)
Gravitational-wave Constraints on the Equatorial Ellipticity of Millisecond Pulsars
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Abbott R
(2021)
Search for anisotropic gravitational-wave backgrounds using data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo's first three observing runs
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2021)
Tests of general relativity with binary black holes from the second LIGO-Virgo gravitational-wave transient catalog
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2021)
Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3a
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott R
(2021)
Search for Lensing Signatures in the Gravitational-Wave Observations from the First Half of LIGO-Virgo's Third Observing Run
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott R
(2021)
Constraints from LIGO O3 Data on Gravitational-wave Emission Due to R-modes in the Glitching Pulsar PSR J0537-6910
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott R
(2021)
All-sky search for short gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo run
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2021)
Constraints on Cosmic Strings Using Data from the Third Advanced LIGO-Virgo Observing Run.
in Physical review letters
Abbott R
(2020)
Properties and Astrophysical Implications of the 150 M ? Binary Black Hole Merger GW190521
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott R
(2021)
GWTC-2: Compact Binary Coalescences Observed by LIGO and Virgo during the First Half of the Third Observing Run
in Physical Review X
Abbott R
(2021)
All-sky search for long-duration gravitational-wave bursts in the third Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo run
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2020)
GW190412: Observation of a binary-black-hole coalescence with asymmetric masses
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2021)
Upper limits on the isotropic gravitational-wave background from Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo's third observing run
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2021)
Diving below the Spin-down Limit: Constraints on Gravitational Waves from the Energetic Young Pulsar PSR J0537-6910
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Abbott R
(2021)
All-sky search for continuous gravitational waves from isolated neutron stars in the early O3 LIGO data
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2021)
Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Young Supernova Remnants in the Early Third Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbott R
(2021)
All-sky search in early O3 LIGO data for continuous gravitational-wave signals from unknown neutron stars in binary systems
in Physical Review D
Abbott R
(2020)
GW190814: Gravitational Waves from the Coalescence of a 23 Solar Mass Black Hole with a 2.6 Solar Mass Compact Object
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Abbott R
(2021)
Observation of Gravitational Waves from Two Neutron Star-Black Hole Coalescences
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Description | This has led to the first detection of gravitational waves - that was i.e. awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 and the 2016 Special Breakthrough Prize - and the first multi-messenger observation of a binary neutron star merger, gamma-ray burst and kilonova. This has led to the discovery of merging binary black holes and the first observation of neutron star - black hole binaries. A total of 90 systems have been discovered so fa. |
Exploitation Route | Development of techniques for seismic isolation, metrology and quantum systems, and data processing/analysis/data science |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
URL | https://www.ligo.org |
Description | Seismic isolation and sensors, data science applications. |
First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics |
Impact Types | Economic |