NSF Award
2432036
This award combines novel detections of gravity waves and particles with traditional astronomy observations to better understand the physics of merging black holes and neutron stars. This way of exploring the universe is powerful but presents challenges. Often the direction and origin of the merger is uncertain, and astronomers must search large areas of the sky to identify any explosions that may be related. Response time is also important, as any astronomical signal may only last for hours and may be confused with many unrelated sources in the night sky. To address this challenge, a team led by the University of Arizona and Northwestern University will develop a tool that uses data archives and real-time observations to help astronomers assess incoming candidate counterparts to gravity wave and neutrino events. This product will lower the barrier to enter this exciting field and bring together communities including high schools, smaller institutions and amateur astronomers. This award will fund scholarships for high school students to conduct related research. <br/><br/>The team will build the Treasure TROVE (a Tool for Rapid Object Vetting and Examination), which will use the vast stores of information in astronomical archives and real-time searches for supernovae to help multi-messenger astronomers assess and prioritize incoming candidate counterparts to gravitational wave events and neutrinos. For each candidate transient counterpart to a gravitational wave or particle messenger, the Treasure TROVE will crossmatch it with galaxy catalogs, archival imaging, and other public archives to determine whether the distance, variability, and association with other types of transients is consistent with the messenger. This will allow for ~50% of candidates to be discarded without any further need of follow-up, and for the most promising candidates to be prioritized. This program will involve community engagement, providing workshops, tutorials, and public workspaces that will ensure the broadest possible community can use the Treasure TROVE and participate in multi-messenger astronomy. Multi-messenger event localizations can span 1-1000s square degrees on the sky, and follow-up electromagnetic observations can uncover tens to hundreds of transients within that region - only one of which can be related to the gravitational wave, neutrino, or high-energy particle alert. The Treasure TROVE tool will take basic information of recent transients and automatically place each object in context using historical light curves and host galaxy identification, along with cross-matching with image archives and multiple point source, variable, and quasar catalogs. The Treasure TROVE will simplify this task with an easy-to-use software and web interface, optimizing follow-up telescope resources and speeding discovery.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
