Improving the Detection Capabilities for the Gravitational Wave Memory of Core Collapse Supernovae
Faculty Mentor Name
Michele Zanolin, Brennan Hughey
Format Preference
Poster
Abstract
With the discovery of Gravitational Waves (GWs) in 2015 by LIGO interferometers, a new era of astronomy has begun. A paper led by a former Prescott Physics student also indicated the possibility of detecting the so-called GW Memory produced by supermassive exploding stars. This signal is related to permanent scars in the fabric of space-time, which are produced by asymmetric Core Collapse Supernovae (CCSNe) explosions.
A challenge in detecting this new type of GW source is the fact that these signals have most of their energy in a frequency band of the laser interferometer that is currently plagued by transients of non-astrophysical origin. Our research group here in Prescott is committed to improving and characterizing the noise in the frequency band between 10–13 hertz, which is of interest for the search for GW memory. We have correlation software able to produce GW candidates related to GW memory. Unfortunately, it also produces false alarms. One of the main goals of this research is to use detector characterization methods to reduce the rate of false alarms enough to declare statistically confident detections of the memory. The way we are approaching this is to use the signals in environmental auxiliary detectors placed near the LIGO and Virgo interferometers and veto noisy gravitational wave data that are strongly statistically correlated with noisy intervals in these auxiliary detectors.
This project will employ specialized software called H-veto, which allows us to study the correlation of environmental transients with the GW transients of a given search. The goal of this research is to make the search for Gravitational Wave Memory not just a possibility, but a reality.
Improving the Detection Capabilities for the Gravitational Wave Memory of Core Collapse Supernovae
With the discovery of Gravitational Waves (GWs) in 2015 by LIGO interferometers, a new era of astronomy has begun. A paper led by a former Prescott Physics student also indicated the possibility of detecting the so-called GW Memory produced by supermassive exploding stars. This signal is related to permanent scars in the fabric of space-time, which are produced by asymmetric Core Collapse Supernovae (CCSNe) explosions.
A challenge in detecting this new type of GW source is the fact that these signals have most of their energy in a frequency band of the laser interferometer that is currently plagued by transients of non-astrophysical origin. Our research group here in Prescott is committed to improving and characterizing the noise in the frequency band between 10–13 hertz, which is of interest for the search for GW memory. We have correlation software able to produce GW candidates related to GW memory. Unfortunately, it also produces false alarms. One of the main goals of this research is to use detector characterization methods to reduce the rate of false alarms enough to declare statistically confident detections of the memory. The way we are approaching this is to use the signals in environmental auxiliary detectors placed near the LIGO and Virgo interferometers and veto noisy gravitational wave data that are strongly statistically correlated with noisy intervals in these auxiliary detectors.
This project will employ specialized software called H-veto, which allows us to study the correlation of environmental transients with the GW transients of a given search. The goal of this research is to make the search for Gravitational Wave Memory not just a possibility, but a reality.