Enabling Confident Burst Gravitational Wave Detections with LIGO Data Quality Investigations

LIGO’s first direct detection of a gravitational wave has allowed humans to make paradigm-shifting observations of a binary black hole system. Since then, there have been tens of additional gravitational wave detections and all have been from the same source class: binary coalescences. Much has been learned about our Universe from these observations, but additional physical phenomena will be explored through observations of new source classes such as burst gravitational waves.

Bursts are a class of gravitational waves that originate from sources that can’t be modeled confidently or are unanticipated. Because of this, little is known about them, yet they hold the potential to lead to new discoveries about our Universe. The research conducted in this award will enable confident burst gravitational wave detections by reducing the impact of glitches in the search for burst gravitational waves with LIGO.

This award focuses on training undergraduate students to significantly contribute to this research, formally instructing them in the responsible conduct of research, and communicating their work to both professional scientists at professional meetings and the public through a partnership with the nearby American Helicopter Museum and Education Center (AHMEC). This award also includes tuition support for at least 9 disadvantaged girls and young women (3 each year) to participate in the Girls in Science and Technology (GIST) program run by the AHMEC.

The research proposed will increase the confidence in candidate detections of burst gravitational waves by decreasing the impact of transient data artifacts (glitches) on their search algorithms. Searches for burst gravitational waves cannot make assumptions about the waveforms they seek other than they are transient and uncorrelated with the ambient detector noise.

Because of that, burst search algorithms are designed to detect statistical excesses in the detector output and are particularly susceptible to the presence of glitches originating from the instrument or its environment. An accidental trigger is generated when the burst search algorithm identifies a glitch as a potential detection candidate. By conducting careful studies on the accidental trigger distribution, glitches with the most impact on the burst searches can be mitigated through their direct removal (veto) from searches.

This award will involve the development of vetoes for burst searches, investigations into vetoes that reduce the significance of candidate events based on the confidence that a glitch is present (instead of simply excluding the time), automation of applying results from existing veto tools to burst searches, measurement of the detectable range for a burst search based on the current performance of the search, and facilitating coordination between relevant working groups. This will result in a lower false alarm probability and higher confidence of candidate detections, improved sensitivity of the burst gravitational wave searches, and increased observations for the growing fields of gravitational wave astronomy and multi-messenger astronomy.

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.