Students learn about the physics of gravitational waves and how they are detected, and then use real data from a global network of gravitational wave observatories to perform their own personal research investigation.
Read about each student's investigation in their own words:
The LVT151012 event produces numerous questions on its validity due to various factors. In this paper, I investigate this and analyze the LIGO data for this specific event. I will first give background on what gravitational waves are and how they're measured, my methodology in investigating the event, and a conclusion of my results. This paper is targeted at anyone who is interested in learning about gravitational waves and has a basic understanding of physics.
The goal of this project was to evaluate the reasoning of Creswell et al. from the Niels Bohr Institute who claim that the validity of GW150914, the first gravitational wave detection from LIGO, is questionable because of various detector correlations. In order to do this, I attempted to reproduce multiple graphs from "On the Time Lags of the LIGO Signals" as well as understand the meaning behind these graphs and how they contribute to the claims made by Creswell et al.. Multiple graphs that I created using the modified LIGO Tutorials did not match the ones from Creswell et al. and this brought their claims into question.