This award support the Research Experience for Undergraduates located at the California Institute of Technology, with research also taking place at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) sites in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington. The site supports ten students for ten weeks of summer research per year, with projects focusing on research in the detection of gravitational radiation from astrophysical sources, including laser interferometry, optical components, electronics, servo controls, complex mechanical systems, data analysis techniques, astrophysical source modeling, and numerical relativity. REU participants work closely with individual LIGO scientists on projects involving many aspects of detector hardware development, data analysis, and source modeling. The students are able to make real and lasting contributions in a research experience at the forefront of observational astrophysics. Students interact with scientists of all ages, so they can learn about today's career options in science in addition to the science itself. The RET component of this proposal involves high school teachers that are local to the LIGO sites in rural Washington and Louisiana. RET participants take part in research projects alongside the REU students at the sites, and they also work on creating classroom activities that bring the foundations of LIGO science to their own students. This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program, and by the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Math and Physical Sciences Directorate in conjunction with the Physics Division.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Project offers undergraduate students a unique research experience in a variety of areas of physics and engineering, as they become involved in our quest to make the world’s first direct detections of gravitational radiation from astrophysical sources. Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and time produced by violent events in the distant universe, such as the collision of two black holes or shockwaves from the cores of supernova explosions. Gravitational waves are emitted by accelerating masses in much the same way as electromagnetic waves are produced by accelerating charges. These ripples in the space-time fabric travel toward Earth, bringing with them information about their cataclysmic origins, as well as invaluable clues as to the nature of gravity. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of these gravitational waves in his 1916 general theory of relativity, but only now in the 21st Century has technology advanced to enable their detection and study by science. Although not yet detected directly, the influence of gravitational waves on a binary pulsar (two neutron stars orbiting each other) has been measured accurately, and was found to be in good agreement with predictions. Scientists therefore have great confidence that gravitational waves do exist. Joseph Taylor and Russel Hulse were awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies in this field. The LIGO Project is dedicated to the detection of cosmic gravitational waves and the measurement of these waves for scientific research. It consists of two widely separated installations within the United States, one at Hanford, Washington, and the other at Livingston, Louisiana. The two LIGO Sites are operated in unison as a single observatory. This observatory is available for use by the world scientific community, and is a vital member in a developing global network of gravitational wave observatories. This REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) grant brings summer students to Caltech and to the LIGO Sites to work on the LIGO Project. During the course of this grant, the LIGO REU students performed research at the frontier of observational astrophysics, making real and lasting contributions to a major scientific effort. Our students worked with professional scientists from around the globe, at all stages in their careers, and learned first-hand how large scientific projects are organized and operate. They also acquired new skills that are applicable in a broad range of technical careers, as they worked on projects involving optics, lasers, electronics, servo controls, mechanical systems, data analysis, and software development, with an ever-present focus on pushing engineering systems to calculated physical noise limits.
