LIGO Seminar

Laying a foundation for confident transient gravitational wave observation: characterizing the Advanced LIGO instruments

Jessica McIver, Graduate Student, University of Massachusetts Amherst,

As a result of recent instrumental upgrades and the tremendous efforts of instrument scientists and commissioners, the advanced detector era will see unprecedented sensitivity to gravitational waves over a broad frequency range. The first direct observation of gravitational waves is expected to occur within the next few years, yielding new information about the physics involved in energetic astrophysical events such as binary neutron star mergers, or perhaps even galactic supernovae. With the installation and commissioning of Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) instrumental upgrades nearing completion, the first aLIGO observing run (O1) is slated to start as early as six months from now.

This talk will cover the interferometers' commissioning timeline and the lead up to O1 with a focus on preparing to analyze transient gravitational wave signals, and will give an overview of the goals of detector characterization and examples of some of the most pressing issues in recent data that may hinder confident detection and accurate parameter estimation of transient gravitational wave events.

We plan to broadcast this talk using SeeVogh.

Event Sponsors:

For more information, please contact Sydney Meshkov by email at [email protected].