Gravitational Wave Astronomy

The Multimessenger Diversity Network (MDN) – a new initiative founded by LIGO and fellow research networks VERITAS, LSST, and IceCube – had its first face-to-face meeting on March 12th at the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center. Dr. Key represented LIGO at the event, which included presentations, training, and a great deal of fruitful discussion about how to include more underrepresented communities in multi-messenger astrophysics research. The MDN will continue to meet virtually in the coming months and has begun plans for a white paper outlining a long-term strategy for the group.

See IceCube’s article on the event for more information on the MDN and its founding members.

Dr. Paola Rodríguez Hidalgo, the newest addition to UW Bothell’s Physics department faculty, will be presenting a Pub Night Talk for members of the UWB community – and the general public – on Tuesday, March 26, at 7pm. Her talk, entitled “Quasars: Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxies Far, Far Away…” will take place at McMenamin’s Anderson School location in downtown Bothell. Click here for more information on Dr. Rodríguez Hidalgo’s talk!

The UW Bothell Women in Physics and Astronomy Club (WiPA) has received a monetary grant from the American Physics Society! The grant was awarded by APS’s Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP), and provides support to selected undergraduate groups geared towards recruiting and supporting women students of physics.

Read more about the award here, and be sure to check out the WiPA club and consider attending a meeting!

December brings exciting news from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration!

Four new black hole mergers have been officially announced – including GW170729, the largest and most distant GW source yet observed – and the full results of LIGO/Virgo’s first two observing runs have been organized and released in an official catalog. This catalog contains details on the ten binary black hole mergers and one binary neutron star merger that have been detected thus far.

More information can be found in the LSC Press Release, and the new catalog can be viewed here.

Dr. Key will be speaking to attendees of the North City Tech Meetup on December 3rd about gravitational wave astronomy, LIGO, and recent discoveries in astrophysics. The event is free and open to the public, so if you’d like to learn more about what we do in the GWA Research Group, this would be the perfect chance!

More info about the event can be found here.

UW Seattle will be the regional host for the American Physics Society’s 2019 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics. The event, which combines exciting lecturers, a poster presentation session, workshops, and other activities, will take place January 18-20. Applications are currently open for undergrads over the age of 18, so submit yours now if you’re interested in attending! You can expect to run into several members of the GWA research group while you’re there.

Click here for more information on the event, including sign-ups!

Jess McIver from CalTech will be giving a talk on LIGO strain data and data quality on Friday, July 27th at 3:30pm. The talk will take place in DISC 256 and is estimated to last about an hour. Stop by to learn more about LIGO’s data from this distinguished speaker!

Mikkie Musser, a Physics major undergrad, has the honor of receiving one of three of the 2nd annual Physical Sciences Division Chairs Summer Undergraduate Research Awards! Using these resources, she will be working with Dr. Key throughout the summer to study interferometry in connection with LIGO and the GWA research group. Congratulations, Mikkie!

More information on the award and Mikkie’s project can be found here.

Several GWA students presented their Senior Capstone Projects at the UWB Division of Physical Sciences Capstone Symposium on June 8th. These presentations highlighted their research in gravitational wave astronomy and marked the successful completion of their various UWB degree programs.

• Andrew Clark (Physics) – Gravitational Waves from Cosmic String Cusps and Kinks
• Jacob Hesse (Earth and Space Sciences) – Pulsar Signal Simulator
• Gogo Huang (Physics) – Detection of Noise Transients in LIGO Data with BayesWave
• Darren Hunt (Astronomy, UW Seattle) – The NANOGrav Space Publich Outreach Team
• Michael Keller (Physics) – LIGO Glitches and Machine Learning
• Connor Leupold (Physics) – Characterizing LIGO Supernova Signals
• Jojo Perkins (Physics) – Characterizing Transient Noise to Enable Detection of Gravitational Wave Signals with LIGO
• Andy Szeto (Physics) – Supporting Cosmic String Evidence through Gravitational Wave Analysis

Friday, May 18: The UW’s Undergraduate Research Symposium will feature five UWB GWA research students presenting their recent work! Darren Hunt, Brandon Iritani, Jacob Hesse, GoGo Huang, and Jojo Perkins will all be giving their poster presentations from 2:30 to 4pm. Click here for more information!

Monday, May 21: Dr. Key will be giving a talk at the Port Angeles Main Library discussing “LIGO, Black Holes, and Our New View of the Universe.” If you’re interested in getting a good overview of what it is we do in the field of GWA, this would be the perfect chance to do so! Click here for more information.

Wednesday, May 23: The UWB GWA group will host Sarah Vigeland from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee for a talk on “Optical and Radio Observations of the Binary Pulsar PSR J1640+2224.” The discussion will take place from 12-1pm in DH 256.

We hope to see you at one or more of these exciting events!