Over the past month there have been discussions of the need for a tighter coupling of the gravitational-wave source-simulation community (including numerical relativists) to the experimental gravitational-wave projects. These discussions have involved a few gravitational-wave scientists, the LIGO and LSC leadership, the LISA International Science Team (LIST) and its Sources and Data analysis working group, and the relevant NSF and NASA program officers. There seems to be a general agreement, among these people, on the following proposal:
For each type of gravitational wave source that LIGO and/or LISA is likely to see, and for which waveforms are needed for use in data analysis, we should establish a "source working group" (or "source task group" in LISA language, or simply "source group"). For example, there would be a source group for binary black hole mergers, one for tidal disruption of neutron stars by black holes, and one for nonaxisymmetric collapse of a star or stellar core. Each source group would consist of (i) researchers who are committed to produce waveforms for that source, and/or source simulation software for use in extracting the information the source's waves carry, and (ii) researchers who are committed to produce data analysis algorithms and software for that source. The role of each source group would be to:
* foster communication between the source analysis researchers, the data
analysis researchers, and the LIGO and LISA projects,
* improve the efficiency of the source simulation research,
* in the near term: provide waveform kludges for use in data analysis,
* in the longer term: provide accurate waveforms for use in data
analysis,
* also in the longer term: provide source simulation software, with
variable input physics and parameters, to be used in extracting the
information carried by observed waves,
* when waves have been discovered: participate (together with data
analysts and experimenters) in the extraction of the observed waves'
information
Each source group, if relevant to LIGO, would be attached to the LIGO project via the LIGO Scientific Community (LSC); and if relevant to LISA, would be attached to the LISA mission via Working Group 1 (Sources and Data Analysis) of the LISA International Science Team (LIST).
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We are organizing a workshop at which the above proposal will be discussed in depth by the source analysis community (numerical relativists, computational astrophysicists, black-hole perturbation theorists, post-Newtonian waveform analysts, ...) --- in consultation with the LIGO and LISA data analysis community, the LIGO and LISA science leadership, and the NSF and NASA program officers. This workshop will beheld in conjunction with the March meeting of the LSC --- March 20--23, in Baton Rouge and Livingston, Louisiana. On March 20 the source analysis community will meet at LSU, separately from the LIGO-I scientists (who will be having a closed meeting that day). On March 21, the source simulation community will participate in the LSC meeting --- with perhaps three talks given by members of the source simulation community about the current status of simulation work, and with LSC overview and current status talks configured to be understandable and useful to the source analysis community, and with one or more talks also given about the current status and plans for LISA. On March 22 -- 23 the organization and plans for the source groups will be developed (assuming a significant portion of the source analysis community has embraced the proposal for such groups); this will be done with full participation of the relevant data analysis scientists and in consultation with the LIGO and LISA science leadership and NASA and NSF program officers.
Further details of the meeting will follow in the second circular. Funding has been applied for at NSF for providing partial expenses for a few researchers. Details on how to apply for these funds will be publicized soon.
Jorge Pullin (LSU) and Kip Thorne (Caltech)