KECK INSTITUTE FOR SPACE STUDIES

       

The Architecture of LISA Science Analysis: Imagining the Future

January 16 - 19, 2018
California Institute of Technology - Pasadena, CA 91125

Final Report

Workshop Overview:

The space-based gravitational-wave observatory LISA will offer unparalleled science returns, including a view of massive black-hole mergers to high redshifts, precision tests of general relativity and black-hole structure, a census of thousands of compact binaries in the Galaxy, and the possibility of detecting stochastic signals from the early Universe.

While the Mock LISA Data Challenges (2006–2011) gave us confidence that LISA will be able to fulfill its scientific potential, we still have a rather incomplete idea of what the end-to-end LISA science analysis should look like. The task at hand is substantial. Our algorithms need to resolve thousands of individual sources of different types and strengths, all of them superimposed in the same multi-year dataset, and simultaneously characterize the underlying noise-like stochastic background. Our catalogs need to represent the complex and highdimensional joint distributions of estimated source parameters for all sources. Our waveform models need to reach part-in-105 accuracy (to achieve full testingGR performance), with sufficient computational efficiency to sample parameter space broadly. Our data reduction needs to ensure the phase coherence of GW measurements across data gaps and instrument glitches over multiple years. It is tempting to assume that current algorithms and prototype codes will scale up to this challenge, thanks to the greatly increased computational power that will become available by LISA’s launch in the early 2030s. In reality, harnessing that power will require very different methods, adapted to future high-performance computational architectures that we can only glimpse now. Thus, we need to begin our exploration at this time, seeking inspiration from other disciplines (e.g., big-data processing, computational biology, the most advanced applications in astroinformatics), and learning to pose the same physical questions in different, future-proof ways—or even daring to imagine questions that will be tractable only with future machines.

The broad objective of this study program is to imagine how evolved or rethought data-analysis algorithms and source-modeling codes will solve the LISA science analysis on the computers of the future. For instance, can we run numericalrelativity simulations on massively parallel, loosely connected processors, in a fault tolerant way? Can we break away from the serial nature of stochastic parameter estimation to (again) exploit parallelism? Can we apply “divide and conquer” principles to the extremely interconnected LISA “global fit”? What representation can we give for the entries (which range from very fuzzy to very defined) in evolving source catalogs, so that we can support the production of partially cleaned datasets, and allow the interaction of multiple analysts? The answers will help guide LISA science and data analysis R&D for the next decade.


Tuesday, January 16 - Hameetman Auditorium
Cahill Building - Caltech

Short Course: Science, Source Modeling, and Data Analysis for the Space-Based Gravitational-Wave Observatory LISA

Introductory Lectures - Open to all interested students, researchers and faculty
Time
Event
Speaker
8:15 - 8:45

Coffee and Refreshments

8:45 - 9:00

Logistics / Introduction

Michele Judd and Team Leads

9:00 - 10:00

An Overview of Lisa Science

Curt Cutler

10:00 - 11:00

Analytical and Numerical Modeling of Binary Sources: State of the Art and Prospects

Deirdre Shoemaker
11:00 - 11:30

Break

11:30 - 12:30

Introduction to Data Analysis of Gravitational-Wave Signals

Stanislav (Stas) Babak

12:30 - 1:30

Short Course Ends: Informal Lunch is provided outside on the Cahill Patio

Invitation-Only Workshop Begins
Keck Center - Think Tank, Room 155

1:30 - 1:45

Walk to Keck Center, pick up badge and welcome packet, find seat in the Think Tank

1:45 - 2:30

Workshop Logistics and Introduction to KISS

Michele Judd

2:30 - 3:00

Participant Introductions

Michele Judd

3:00 - 3:30

Study Vision and Goals

Team Leads
3:30 - 4:00

Break

4:00 - 5:00

Finalize Study Vision, Goals, and Report Writing via Plenary Discussion

Team Leads

5:00 - 5:30

Discussion of Planned and Additional Short Talks

Team Leads
5:30 - 6:00 Pack Up and Walk to the Athenaeum All
6:00 Dinner at the Athenaeum

Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Keck Center - Think Tank, Room 155

Time
Event
Speaker
8:00 - 8:30

Institute Opens - FREE THINK TIME

8:30 - 9:00

Coffee and Refreshments at Keck Center

 

9:00 - 9:15

Logistics and Team Lead Goals for the Day

Michele Judd
Team Leads

9:15 - 9:45

Stochastic Methods in LISA Searches (25' + 5')

Neil Cornish
9:45 - 10:15

Astronomical Applications of Machine Learning and Neural Networks (25' + 5')

Ashish Mahabal

10:15 - 10:30

Group Discussion

All
10:30 - 11:00

Break

11:00 - 11:40

Short Talks: Architecture of Data Archives (3, 15' + 5')

Stas Babak, Rachel Akeson
11:40 - 12:30 Group Discussion All
12:30 - 2:00 Group Picture and Lunch at the Athenaeum
2:00 - 2:15 Charge of Breakout Groups: Organizing LISA Science Pipelines, Imagining LISA Data Archives, TBD All
2:15 - 3:30 Breakout Groups Meet Groups
3:30 - 4:00 Break
4:00 - 4:30 Reports from Breakout Groups (10-15 minutes each) Groups, All
4:30 - 5:30 Panel on Social Aspects of Coding in Scientific Organizations Christine Corbett-Moran,
Alberto Vecchio
6:00 OPTIONAL: Dinner on your own, or team leads may organize a no-host dinner in Pasadena for interested parties

Thursday, January 18 , 2018
Keck Center - Think Tank, Room 155

Time
Event
Speaker
8:00 - 8:30

Institute Opens - FREE THINK TIME

8:30 - 9:00

Coffee and Refreshments at Keck Center

 

9:00 - 9:15

Logistics and Team Lead Goals for the Day

Michele Judd
Team Leads

9:15 - 9:45

New Paradigms for Computational Astrophysics (25' + 5')

Larry Kidder
9:45 - 10:15

Waveform Modeling for Parameter Estimation (25' + 5')

Prayush Kumar

10:15 - 10:30

Group Discussion

All
10:30 - 11:00

Break

11:00 - 11:40

Short Talks: Source Modeling (2, 15' + 5')

Chad Galley,
Francois Foucart

11:40 - 12:30

Panel on EMRI Modeling

Curt Cutler,
Stas Babak,
Alvin Chua
12:30 - 2:00  Lunch on your own
2:00 - 2:15 Charge of Breakout Groups: LISA-Targeted Waveform Modeling vs Science Investigations; Promising Optimizations; Interplay with Parameter Estimation All
2:15 - 3:30 Breakout Groups Meet Groups
3:30 - 4:00 Break
4:00 - 4:30 Report from Breakout Groups (10-15 mins each) Groups
4:30 - 5:10 Short Talks: "Live" Data Products and Scientific Enlightenment (2, 15' + 5') Titus Brown,
Scott Davidoff
5:10 - 5:30 Group Discussion All
5:30 - 6:00 Pack Up and Walk to Athenaeum All
6:00 Dinner at the Athenaeum (with spouses and significant others)

Friday, January 19, 2018

Keck Center - Think Tank, Room 155

Time
Event
Speaker
8:00 - 8:30

Institute Opens - FREE THINK TIME

8:30 - 9:00

Coffee and Refreshments at Keck Center

 

9:00 - 9:15

Logistics and Team Lead Goals for the Day

Michele Judd
Team Leads

9:15 - 10:05

Short Talks: Data-Intensive Computational Architectures and GPUs (2, 15' + 5')

Dan Crichton, Kate Clark
10:05 - 10:30

Group Discussion

All

10:30 - 11:00

Final Study Activities and Assignments - Group Discussion

11:00 - 12:30

Summarize Findings, Group Discussion on Recommendations

Team Leads, All
12:30 - 2:00 

Lunch at the Athenaeum

2:00 - 3:30

Breakout Groups for Report Writing (Waveforms, Data Analysis, Techniques, Hardware)

All
3:30 - 4:00 Break
4:00 - 4:45 Final Study Activities and Assignments - Group Discussion All
4:45 - 5:00 Workshop Closeout Michele Judd
5:00 Workshop Concludes

Workshop Participants:

  • Rachel Akeson - Caltech
  • Anne Archibald - Universiteit van Amsterdam
  • Stanislav Babak - APC, Université Paris Diderot
  • Katelyn Breivik - Northwestern University
  • C. Titus Brown - UC Davis
  • Alvin Chua - JPL
  • Neil Cornish - Montana State University
  • Curt Cutler - JPL
  • Scott Davidoff - JPL
  • Francois Foucart - University of New Hampshire
  • Chad Galley - JPL
  • Lawrence Kidder - Cornell University
  • Prayush Kumar - Cornell University
  • Astrid Lamberts - Caltech
  • Geoffrey Lovelace - Cal State Fullerton
  • Ashish Mahabal - Caltech
  • Christine Corbett Moran - Caltech
  • Laura Nuttall - Cardiff University
  • Maria Okounkova - Caltech
  • Travis Robson - Montana State University
  • Mark Scheel - Caltech
  • Deirdre Shoemaker - Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Stephen Taylor - Caltech
  • Saul Teukolsky - Caltech
  • Massimo Tinto - UC San Diego
  • Michele Vallisneri - JPL
  • Vijay Varma - Caltech
  • Alberto Vecchio - University of Birmingham

Short Course Presentations

Stanislav (Stas) Babak
APC, Université Paris Diderot
Introduction to Data Analysis of Gravitational-Wave Signals
(34.8 MB .pdf)
Curt Cutler
JPL/Caltech
An Overview of Lisa Science
(2 MB .pdf)

Deirdre Shoemaker
Georgia Tech

Analytical and Numerical Modeling of Binary Sources: State of the Art and Prospects
(19 MB .pdf)

Workshop Presentations

Rachel Akeson
Caltech
Astronomical Data Archives
(819 KB .pdf)
C. Titus Brown
UC Davis
Live Data Products
(312 KB .pdf)

Neil Cornish

Montana State University

Stochastic Methods in LISA Searches
(25.9 MB .pdf)

Francois Foucart
University of New Hampshire
Matter Simulations in the LISA Era
(1.7 MB .pdf)
Chad Galley
JPL
Reduced-Order Modeling and Gravitational Waveforms
( 2.4 MB .pdf)

Lawrence E. Kidder

Cornell University

New Paradigms for Computational Astrophysics
(379 KB .pdf)
Prayush Kumar
Cornell University
Waveform Modeling for LIGO Parameter Estimation: Status & Challenges for LISA
(4.9 MB .pdf)
Ashish Mahabal
Caltech
Astronomical Applications of Machine Learning and Neural Networks
(8.4 MB .pdf)
Antoine Petiteau
University Paris-Diderot - CNRS
LISA (Distributed) Data Processing “Center”
(13.2 MB .pdf)
Michele Vallisneri
JPL
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
(8 MB .pdf)