Description:

Dr. Tyson Littenberg
Research Astrophysicist with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Host: Vicky Kalogera

Talk Title: Data Science Challenges in Gravitational Wave Surveys

Talk Abstract:

Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy has transformed from a niche area of speculative research to an invaluable component of the astronomer's toolkit. As access to the GW spectrum broadens, so too must the computational approaches used to extract information from the data. The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is an ESA-led mission to survey the mHz regime of the GW spectrum richly populated with a variety of galactic, extragalactic, and cosmological sources. LISA will also be a multimessenger power house, with copious sources expected to produce counterparts covering the electromagnetic spectrum. Fully realizing the science capabilities of LISA demands new data science approaches for GW signal extraction to cope with the numerous overlapping sources simultaneously present in the data. These include high- and trans-dimensional optimization algorithms for Bayesian model selection, machine learning algorithms for compactly representing multidimensional probability distributions, and hardware acceleration with GPUs to improve computational and energy efficiency for the pipelines. This talk will summarize the LISA mission, its science objectives, and take an in-depth look at the nuances, computational challenges, and current state of the art for processing and interpreting the LISA data.