Arecibo Binary Pulsar Search == gravitational wave search ?
1 May 2009 13:06:06 UTC
Topic 194326
(moderation:
I'm wondering whether these are 2 different things or whether S5R5 and ABP are similar things.
The background is that my initial decision to join einstein@home was made wrt gravitational wave search.
Arecibo Binary Pulsar Search == gravitational wave search ?
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Hi!
They are completely different things. The ABP search looks for pulsars in binary systems that have characteristics that make them interesting for research, but that search will not contribute directly to any detection of GWs.
BTW you can opt-out of the ABP search if you prefer to crunch only the S5R5 workunits which are directly related to GW detector data analysis :
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/prefs.php?subset=project
CU
Bikeman
RE: BTW you can opt-out of
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Thx, so I changed my preferences. BTW wasn't einstein@home dedicated to graviational waves only in the past or did I overlooked something during my join to this project ?
RE: Thx, so I changed my
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Correct, E@H was instigated with the goal of gravitational wave study by Prof. Allen of the Continuous Wave Group of LIGO/LSC - the detection of GW signals from neutron stars. The Aricebo units have only been recently added ie. radio waves.
Reasoning? There's a few but mainly the concern, given such a long term study that the GW area entails, that volunteer enthusiasm would wane. Particularly if nature is reticent to provide us with a positive detection. Thus far results have yielded upper bounds on some astronomical behaviours, which is quite useful, but I guess people need or like milestones of progress. So prolonged non-detection could sap impetus. My sense is that when Advanced LIGO arrives, which is several orders more sensitive than the current interferometers, the expectation will be great for detection. Please note that the current scheme had been planned to be so quite a while ago, meaning that no-one is surprised at the lack of detection thus far. I say this not to be defensive, but it seems to be recurrently misunderstood that the present LIGO configurations are one step along a series of planned refinements.
So PALFA is perhaps meant to keep our amusement up during this extended mission. It serves real, legitimate science in it's own right though! :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: RE: BTW you can
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On the other hand, you're probably attracting new people like me who saw the pulsar searching press release and signed up for E@H. Of course I'm a rare bird pulsar weenie (did my Ph.D. in 1991 on millisecond pulsars with data from Arecibo, so this hit really close to home).
"Better is the enemy of the good." - Voltaire (should be memorized by every requirements lead)
RE: On the other hand,
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No doubt! Nice to hear that. :-)
Please do tell us of your research, if you are so inclined ... :-)
If people can opt in/out as they please, then there's no downside for the volunteers.
[ Now, let me guess. Someone is going to ask if one can do PALFA, but not the GW units .... :-) ]
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: RE: On the other
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I think the new Arecibo search is just great. __ I personally, am happy to crunch
the data. ___ If we bag a few binary pulsars __ that would be fantastic.
Besides, if enthusiasm wanes ___ I can always transition back to my former
Main Project ___ Mike Hewson’s ___ IAC@Home :-)
Bill
RE: Correct, E@H was
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Hhm, so the target was changed after people joined the original project. The participants were not informed per email and the default choice (via preferences) is set to choose a different project than the one which was offered originally ?
This would be one of those things which should never happen.
I do not argue against the new project nor do I islike the new project - I like science but ...
neglecting the wishes of people and thinking to have the right/power to make the decisions in place of others is really wrong.
I'm pretty sure that such a way is against the intention of BOINC, isn't it ?
RE: Hhm, so the target was
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Let me help to clarify things. The target wasn't changed at all. Einstein@Home is still doing the same search for gravitational waves as before. The search using radio data from the Arecibo telescope that was recently launched is running in addition to the standard GW search.
By default your attached machines will get the majority of their WUs from the GW search and a certain fraction from the radio search. The default setting therefore is not set to choose a different project than the one offered originally.
Plus, finding tight binary pulsars offers a great chance of improving our predictions for GW detections as well. Binary systems will eventually merge and produce gravitational waves as they do. Having more information on how many and what kind of binary systems are out there lets us better predict how often we might detect gravitational waves from these events.
So, the findings of the binary pulsar search might have implications for GW detections as well and are closely related to them.
I hope this makes things clearer.
Einstein@Home Project
RE: I think the new Arecibo
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LOL, Nice One! I'd almost forgotten that one ..... it's been a while. Thanks for reminding me. :-) :-)
Cheers, Mike.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...
... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal
RE: RE: Correct, E@H was
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Though I can see a little bit where you are coming from, the fact is E@H is one of the best run DC projects out there and most likely to not waste voluteer resources. Every DC project makes a few mistakes but some are run so criminally poorly that they are nothing but giant voluteer resource as well as science sink holes . Keep up the good work E@H!