引力波天文学的相关研究

On 11th of February, the LIGO collaboration announced the successful detection of gravitational waves (GW), heralding in the era of GW astronomy. The detection made by LIGO is in the highest of the four main GW frequency ranges (analogy can be drawn with the electromagnetic classifications). The next steps for GW astronomy consists of: (1) achieve detection in the other frequency ranges. In particular, in the lowest two regimes, the experimental results have attracted significant debate, requiring relevant theoretical studies to provide explanations, as well as noise reduction strategies etc for the future. We propose to carry out such researches in this proposal. (2) In the high frequency regime where an initial detection has already been achieved, the next step is to transition from detection to observation, making GW a truly useful medium for routine astronomical observations. This requires us to combine GW and electromagnetic (and other) observations seamlessly, meaning that the modeling and analysis of sources, the development of low latency data analysis pipeline, the storing and process of large amounts of data are all vitally important. We propose to develop such capabilities through this project. In summary, we aim to provide the most directly useful theoretical and data analysis support that's the most relevant to the immediate future development of GW astronomy.

今年2月11日，LIGO宣布成功探测引力波，掀开了引力波天文学的序幕。其探测波段为四个引力波主要波段（可以与电磁波中无线电，光学，x-ray等分类类比）中最高的。引力波天文学下一步的主要发展方向是（1）在其他波段达成成功探测。在频率最低的两个波段，实验探测的结果都有较大争议，需要相关理论研究做出合理解释，并为下一步探测中的噪音排除等提供线索。我们在本项目中提议开展这方面研究。（2）在已达成初步探测的较高频领域，下一步需要从探测向观测转变，使引力波真正成为常规天文观测的手段。这就需要我们将引力波与电磁波等其他观测手段有机结合，而对波源的理论分析预测、对实时高速的数据分析方法的开发、对海量数据的存储及处理等就是重中之重。本项目对这些领域提议展开深入的探索，构建相关能力。我们意图在引力波天文学中与下一步实验发展最息息相关的理论和数据分析领域提供最有实用意义的研究。

自2015年以来，高频引力波探测已进入常规化阶段，中低频引力波探测器也在不断发展推进，引力波天文学领域发展迅速。在此背景下，本项目进展非常顺利，针对既有的研究目标，以及一些额外的机遇性课题开展了深入研究，在原初引力波、引力波宇宙学、引力波多信使天文学、纳赫兹频段的引力波天文学、引力透镜化引力波、修改引力理论等方面取得了一系列重要成果。在Physical Review Letters, Nature Communications, MNRAS,PRD等天文学主流杂志发表SCI论文超过160篇，另在引力波数据处理和算法研究方面，发展了现有引力波数据处理模版，开发了使用数值相对论研究原初引力波非线性相互作用的相关理论和代码基础。