This award will support the theoretical and experimental work of Bose, Raab, and their students in gravitational-wave physics. On the theoretical front, they will work on searching for gravitational-wave signals from mergers of compact objects, such as binary black holes, in the data of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) that was collected during a recently concluded two-year-long observation run. They will also contribute to the ongoing experimental effort for improving LIGO's sensitivity ten-fold in the process of building its successor, Advanced LIGO.
The search being conducted currently in LIGO data has the potential for making the first direct detection of gravitational-wave signals. Even if such a detection is not made in the latest observation run, this exercise educates us about the new methods and tools that must be developed to make it happen with the more sensitive Advanced LIGO. In the process, this award will contribute to the training of future gravitational-wave astronomers.
