Gravitational-Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics at Syracuse University

Gravitational-wave astronomy has given humanity a completely new way to observe the universe. The National Science Foundation’s Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) now routinely detects astrophysical sources of gravitational waves. Science now has an observatory that will allow us to peer into the cores of exploding stars, probe the interiors of neutron stars, and explore the extreme physics of colliding black holes. The discovery of the binary neutron star merger GW170817 was accompanied by light across the electromagnetic spectrum and inaugurated the use of gravity as an instrument of multi-messenger astronomy. The dramatic breakthroughs made by LIGO and Virgo are only the beginning of our exploration of the gravitational-wave sky. Advanced LIGO is joined by Advanced Virgo, KAGRA, and eventually there will be the next-generation observatories, Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope. New algorithms are required to achieve the full scientific potential of the growing global observatory network. This award will support the development of new gravitational-wave search algorithms that will lay the foundation for the next generation and open a window to the discovery of new classes of merging binaries. Developing these algorithms will also equip students with the skills needed to enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. STEM workforce. This research investigates multi-detector coherent search algorithms that take advantage of Bayesian tools developed for gravitational-wave astronomy. The optimal approach to detect gravitational-wave sources is a fully Bayesian analysis that can coherently combine gravitational-wave data from multiple detectors and accurately model both gravitational-wave signals and detector noise which may contain non-Gaussian transient noise, aka ’glitches’. Currently employed searches employ heuristics that approximate the optimal approach and enable them to be tractable on available computing resources. While this has been an effective strategy for the early era of gravitational-wave astronomy, these approaches sacrifice sensitivity and flexibility. Algorithms will be explored that enable efficient hierarchical analysis of gravitational-wave data and rapid Bayesian evidence estimation. This approach reduces the barriers between searching for sources and the estimation of source parameters, enabling the reuse of research in either regime into the modeling of glitches, detector nonstationarity, and overlapping signals. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.