This award provides partial support for the Penn State group's participation in and support of LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) activities. Work supported under this award includes the analysis of LIGO data for gravitational wave bursts arising from astronomical sources, including but not limited to supernovae, gamma-ray bursts and black hole mergers; the development of simulated data sets to support the analysis activities of other LSC research groups; investigations into detector noise sources and their mitigation; and the interpretation of LIGO observations with the goal of astronomical discovery. All these activities center on making tighter the connection between LIGO observations and their astrophysical interpretation, and increasing the sensitivity of LIGO observations through more sophisticated and discriminating analysis techniques, and through improved data quality and understanding of the detector. The broader impact of these activities includes enabling the broader LIGO mission, the development of gravitational wave observations as a tool of astronomical discovery, the research education and training of postdocs, graduate students and undergraduate students
" (NSF award PHY 0653462) was devoted to the US national effort to detect gravitational waves and harness their potential for increasing our understanding of the fundamental physics of gravity and as a tool of astronomical discovery. Gravity is, on a cosmic scale, the most significant of the four fundamental forces which are believed to govern all natural phenomena. It is responsible for the most energetic phenomena, observed or hypothesized, in the Universe. Unlike the other fundamental forces of Nature (the electromagnetic, the strong and the weak) it is inextricably linked to the very nature of space and time themselves.Understanding gravity is akin to understanding the space, time and their connection to each other. As a manifestation of the properties of space-time, gravity is unique among the fundamental forces of nature in its universal coupling to energy in all its forms. Whereas the electromagnetic, strong and weak forces act on only select types of matter or energy, gravity acts on and responds to all forms of matter and energy on an equal footing. A consequence is that, with gravitational waves, we can "see" phenomena in the universe that are otherwise invisible to us because they are obscured from our view (by, e.g., intervening gas or dust) or couple only weakly or not at all (e.g. black holes) to the electromagnetic force, which is the principle tool of modern astronomy. n these ways it can truly be said that gravitational wave observations have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos in a way not seen since Galileo first turned a telescope to the heavens. Outcomes of the work carried out under this award include the development of new and more sensitive techniques for the analysis of data from gravitational wave detector experiments, the application of those techniques to the analysis of data from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo detector experiments, and the development of ways to use the observations to add to our understanding of astronomical phenomena and the nature of space-time. Additionally, this award supported the advanced training and apprenticeship of six post-Ph.D. scientists and eight undergraduate students intent upon careers in science.
