It is now almost two decades since Bernard Schutz organized a landmark
meeting on data analysis for gravitational wave detectors at the
University of Cardiff, UK [1]. The proceedings of that meeting make
interesting reading. Among the issues discussed were optimal ways
to carry out searches for binary inspiral signals, and ways in
which the projected growth in computer speed, memory and networking
bandwidth would influence searches for gravitational wave signals.
The Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop traces its
history to the mid-1990s. With the construction of the US LIGO
detectors and the European GEO and VIRGO detectors already underway,
Kip Thorne and Sam Finn realized that it was important for the
world-wide data analysis community to start discussing some of the big
unsettled issues in analysis. What was the optimal way to perform a
pulsar search? To ensure confident detection, how accurately did
binary inspiral waveforms have to be calculated? It was largely Kip
and Sam's initiative that got the GWDAW started.
The first (official) GWDAW was hosted by Rai Weiss at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA in 1996, as
a follow-on to an informal meeting organized in the previous year by
Sam Finn. I have pleasant memories of this first MIT GWDAW. I was
new to the field and remember my excitement at learning that I had
many colleagues interested in (and working on) the important issues.
I also remember how refreshing it was to hear a pair of talks by Pia
Astone and Marialessandra Papa who were not only studying methods
but had actually carried out serious pulsar and burst searches using
data from the Rome resonant bar detectors.
A lot has changed since then. This issue is the Proceedings
of the 8th Annual Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop, held
on 17-20 December 2003 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. Many
of the contributions concern technical details of the analysis of real
data from resonant mass and interferometric detectors, setting
upper limits on known pulsars, the gravitational wave stochastic
background, and rates of burst and inspiral signals.
Barring something unforeseen, the next decade of the GWDAW may see the
launch of the LISA space-based detector, and should see the definitive
detection of gravitational waves with terrestrial detectors. The
scientific significance of this discovery is great enough that it
probably will not be announced at a future GWDAW, but I am sure that the
technical details of the analysis will get a great deal of attention
there!
References
[1] Schutz B F (ed) 1989 Gravitational Wave Data Analysis, Proc. NATO Advanced Research Workshop (Cardiff, UK) (Amsterdam: Kluwer)