Research Infrastructure: LIGO Laboratory Operations and Maintenance 2024-2028 -- Exploring the Gravitational-Wave Cosmos

Researchers at NSF's Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) seek to observe and understand gravitational waves. Gravitational waves (GWs) are oscillations in space and time that are generated whenever mass moves suddenly. They can carry information about cosmic catastrophes, such as the collisions of black holes and neutron stars. Since 2015, LIGO has observed more than one hundred GW events, revealing entirely new information about these exotic objects, which are located tens or hundreds of millions of light years away. This award will enable LIGO to search for additional GW signals and to improve LIGO’s sensitivity so that it can observe even more distant cataclysms. LIGO is the world’s premier gravitational wave observatory. It is a key part of an emerging global network of similar detectors. These are now in operation or under development in Italy (Virgo), Japan (KAGRA), and India (LIGO India). Concurrent measurements by LIGO, Virgo, and optical, radio, and X-ray observatories have inaugurated the era of multi-messenger astronomy, where synergistic detections of gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves reveal entirely new and exciting information about the cosmos. LIGO’s historic GW observations were recognized by the award of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics to LIGO pioneers Barry Barish, Kip Thorne, and Rainer Weiss. This award will stimulate the development of a scientific and technically educated workforce, advance the multidisciplinary application of LIGO-related technology, and it will disseminate information about LIGO-related science and technology to the general public. This award will fund the operation of the existing LIGO apparatus, as well as installation, commissioning, and operation of enhancements to the apparatus that will improve LIGO’s sensitivity. This, and related research activities, will create continued opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration between LIGO staff members, post-docs, and students, and the approximately 1400 researchers and students at 127 universities world-wide that collaborate with LIGO. Funding is provided for the continued operation of the LIGO observatories at Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, the associated science and engineering support programs at Caltech and MIT, and for carrying out education and public outreach programs that disseminate information about LIGO. Funding will be awarded through a new cooperative agreement for the period from January 1, 2024, through December 31, 2028. The effort includes:• Maintenance and operation of the LIGO sites and interferometers,• Commissioning the interferometers to enhance their sensitivity to GWs,• Conducting astrophysical data analysis and detector characterization to discriminate GW signals from noise sources,• Carrying out research and development to enhance detector sensitivity beyond the current design performance,• Curation of LIGO data and its dissemination to the broader research community,• Provision of software and computing resources to LIGO, and the development of new computing tools and methods that extend LIGOs data analysis capabilities, and• Continuation of the vibrant observatory-based LIGO education and public outreach program.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.