Speaker
Mr
Clive Tomlinson
(Sheffield University)
Description
General Relativity predicts that astrophysical systems or events with high mass-energy flux emit gravitational waves, a time varying curvature of space-time which carry energy, and propagate at the speed of light. The spatial strain induced by a passing gravitational wave (GW) is exceedingly small (~10-21), making their detection amidst instrumental noise a highly technical challenge. To date, GWs have not been detected directly. The effort to detect GWs has resulted in a global
network of GW detectors (LIGO Scientific Collaboration). In collaboration with optical/radio astronomy,
confirmation is sought by coincident detection of GWs and associated electromagnetic events.
This has motivated the need to improve signal detection efficiency in real time, to enable rapid
response targeted electromagnetic searches.
Our research at Sheffield has focused on developing low latency signal processing tools, conceived by Dr Ed Daw (Sheffield), which perform narrow-band noise subtraction/monitoring and cross-correlation estimation. These are now being incorporated into copies of the data monitoring software used by LIGO for testing. In this presentation we hope to demonstrate, at least, proof of principle.
Author
Mr
Clive Tomlinson
(Sheffield University)
