No Arabic abstract
Gravitational waves are radiative solutions of space-time dynamics predicted by Einsteins theory of General Relativity. A world-wide array of large-scale and highly sensitive interferometric detectors constantly scrutinizes the geometry of the local space-time with the hope to detect deviations that would signal an impinging gravitational wave from a remote astrophysical source. Finding the rare and weak signature of gravitational waves buried in non-stationary and non-Gaussian instrument noise is a particularly challenging problem. We will give an overview of the data-analysis techniques and associated observational results obtained so far by Virgo (in Europe) and LIGO (in the US), along with the prospects offered by the up-coming advance
The current gravitational wave detectors have identified a surprising population of heavy stellar mass black holes, and an even larger population of coalescing neutron stars. The first observations have led to many dramatic discoveries and the confirmation of general relativity in very strong gravitational fields. The future of gravitational wave astronomy looks bright, especially if additional detectors with greater sensitivity, broader bandwidth, and better global coverage can be implemented. The first discoveries add impetus to gravitational wave detectors designed to detect in the nHz, mHz and kHz frequency bands. This paper reviews the century-long struggle that led to the recent discoveries, and reports on designs and possibilities for future detectors. The benefits of future detectors in the Asian region are discussed, including analysis of the benefits of a detector located in Australia.
Gravitational waves in the sensitivity band of ground-based detectors can be emitted by a number of astrophysical sources, including not only binary coalescences, but also individual spinning neutron stars. The most promising signals from such sources, although not yet detected, are long-lasting, quasi-monochromatic Continuous Waves (CWs). The PyFstat package provides tools to perform a range of CW data-analysis tasks. It revolves around the F-statistic, a matched-filter detection statistic for CW signals that has been one of the standard methods for LIGO-Virgo CW searches for two decades. PyFstat is built on top of established routines in LALSuite but through its more modern Python interface it enables a flexible approach to designing new search strategies. Hence, it serves a dual function of (i) making LALSuite CW functionality more easily accessible through a Python interface, thus facilitating the new user experience and, for developers, the exploratory implementation of novel methods; and (ii) providing a set of production-ready search classes for use cases not yet covered by LALSuite itself, most notably for MCMC-based followup of promising candidates from wide-parameter-space searches.
The field of transient astronomy has seen a revolution with the first gravitational-wave detections and the arrival of multi-messenger observations they enabled. Transformed by the first detection of binary black hole and binary neutron star mergers, computational demands in gravitational-wave astronomy are expected to grow by at least a factor of two over the next five years as the global network of kilometer-scale interferometers are brought to design sensitivity. With the increase in detector sensitivity, real-time delivery of gravitational-wave alerts will become increasingly important as an enabler of multi-messenger followup. In this work, we report a novel implementation and deployment of deep learning inference for real-time gravitational-wave data denoising and astrophysical source identification. This is accomplished using a generic Inference-as-a-Service model that is capable of adapting to the future needs of gravitational-wave data analysis. Our implementation allows seamless incorporation of hardware accelerators and also enables the use of commercial or private (dedicated) as-a-service computing. Based on our results, we propose a paradigm shift in low-latency and offline computing in gravitational-wave astronomy. Such a shift can address key challenges in peak-usage, scalability and reliability, and provide a data analysis platform particularly optimized for deep learning applications. The achieved sub-millisecond scale latency will also be relevant for any machine learning-based real-time control systems that may be invoked in the operation of near-future and next generation ground-based laser interferometers, as well as the front-end collection, distribution and processing of data from such instruments.
Rapid, accurate localization of gravitational wave transient events has proved critical to successful electromagnetic followup. In previous papers we have shown that localization estimates can be obtained through triangulation based on timing information at the detector sites. In practice, detailed parameter estimation routines use additional information and provide better localization than is possible based on timing information alone. In this paper, we extend the timing based localization approximation to incorporate consistency of observed signals with two gravitational wave polarizations, and an astrophysically motivated distribution of sources. Both of these provide significant improvements to source localization, allowing many sources to be restricted to a single sky region, with an area 40% smaller than predicted by timing information alone. Furthermore, we show that the vast majority of sources will be reconstructed to be circularly polarized or, equivalently, indistinguishable from face-on.
Broadband suppression of quantum noise below the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL) becomes a top-priority problem for the future generation of large-scale terrestrial detectors of gravitational waves, as the interferometers of the Advanced LIGO project, predesigned to be quantum-noise-limited in the almost entire detection band, are phased in. To this end, among various proposed methods of quantum noise suppression or signal amplification, the most elaborate approach implies a so-called *xylophone* configuration of two Michelson interferometers, each optimised for its own frequency band, with a combined broadband sensitivity well below the SQL. Albeit ingenious, it is a rather costly solution. We demonstrate that changing the optical scheme to a Sagnac interferometer with weak detuned signal recycling and frequency dependent input squeezing can do almost as good a job, as the xylophone for significantly lower spend. We also show that the Sagnac interferometer is more robust to optical loss in filter cavity, used for frequency dependent squeezed vacuum injection, than an analogous Michelson interferometer, thereby reducing building cost even more.