Searching for Signal in the Noise: A gravitational wave icebreaker activity
Abstract
At the beginning of a class or meeting an icebreaker activity is often used to help loosen the group and get everyone talking. Our motivation is to develop activities that serve the purpose of an icebreaker, but are designed to enhance and supplement a science-oriented agenda. The subject of this poster is an icebreaker activity related to gravitational wave astronomy. We first describe the unique gravitational wave signals from three distinct sources: monochromatic binaries, merging compact objects, and extreme mass ratio encounters. These signals form the basis of the activity where participants work to match an ideal gravitational wave signal with noisy detector output for each type of source.
This work was supported by the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics - NSF cooperative agreement PHY-01-14375.- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005AAS...207.6604L