Optimizing the Gravitational Wave Detector Network Sensitivity

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Mary Catlett
Montana State University Solar Physics REU 2024
Advisor: Dr. Hang Yu

About Me

I am a rising Senior at the University of Montana, studying math and physics with a concentration in Data Science and Statistics. This summer I was a part of the Solar Physics REU program at Montana State University. I joined in order to gain research experience, learn optimization techniques, and further my skills in coding and data analysis. I also love hiking and running in my freetime, and Bozeman is the perfect place to be in summer!

Project Description

Gravitational waves are 'ripples' in spacetime, similar to a rock dropping in a pond with waves propagating outward. Powerful gravitational waves are caused by supermassive events in outer space such as two black holes colliding or two neutron stars merging together. While these events cause massive waves in space, the waves are weak by the time they reach Earth, meaning a high precision device is necessary for detection.

Gravitational waves are detected using interferometers like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). The detector can pick up a change in length between the two beams that is 1000 times smaller than a proton. However, there are several sources of noise that make signal detection difficult, such as heavy traffic and earthquakes. The goal of my project is to optimize the detector network sensitivity over different frequency bands to result in the best signal to noise ratio (SNR). This was investigated by varying the laser power of the detector over the length of the gravitational wave signal.

Progress Reports / Presentations

You can view my progress below!

Contact Info

Email: mary.catlett@umontana.edu
LinkedIn: See Profile