GWANW 2023

Gravitational Wave Astronomy Northwest Meeting 2023

This year, the Gravitational Wave Astronomy Northwest Meeting (GWANW 2023) will take place at the LIGO Hanford Observatory on June 26-28, 2023. It will consist of a one-day student workshop on June 26, followed by the GWANW Meeting on June 27-28. A draft agenda for both the student workshop and the meeting is given below – more details will be posted here in the coming weeks.

Registration

Please use the following links to register for the student workshops and the GWANW meeting. The in-person registration deadline is June 16, the registration deadline for online participation is June 23. If you will be attending the student workshop and the meeting, please complete both of the registration forms:

Registration for Student Workshop

Registration for main GWANW Meeting

Driving Information:

Benton County / WSDOT is closing Rt. 10 — the road one typically takes from SR240 on the way to LIGO —for repairs starting on Monday, Jun 26th. This means that we all will have to take the detour routes indicated in the image below on the way into the lab for the entire conference (we recommend GREEN, but you can also take YELLOW). 

Be mindful as you drive North on Rt. 4 South towards the Wye Barricade. The speed limit drops from 60 mph to 35 mph (100 km/h  to 60 km/h) quickly, and then look out for a left turn. If you mistakenly drive past this left turn, you’ll end up *at* the Wye Barricade, and you’ll be met by armed guards that will turn you around.

Also be mindful that there’s also a brand new roundabout at the SR240 / Rt 10 intersection if you’re coming in from the North West from I90 / Vantage (indicated in BLUE). Sadly, we won’t be able to use it to turn on to Rt. 10 to get to LIGO during the conference, but just be aware that there’s a slow-down on your way in to town.

Draft Agenda:

GWANW Student Workshop

Monday, June 26 (all times PDT): LIGO Exploration Center (LExC) classroom and on Zoom

  • 10:00 Welcome and introductions
  • 10:15 GWA overview (Ansel Neunzert)
  • 11:00 LIGO tutorial with Alan Knee, Niko Lecoeuche, Ben Mannix
  • 12:30 Lunch
  • 1:30 NANOGrav tutorial with Aaron Johnson
  • 3:00 Coffee break
  • 3:30 LISA tutorial with María José Bustamante
  • 4:30 GWA outreach opportunities
  • 4:45 Summary and wrap-up
  • 6:30 Board games and pizza

Workshop slides from previous years:

Folder with 2022 workshop slides

Folder with 2021 workshop slides

GWANW Meeting

Tuesday, June 27: LIGO Exploration Center (LExC) classroom and on Zoom

  • 9:00 Welcome
  • 9:30 Lab Tour
  • 11:00 GW observatory status reports
  • 12:30 Lunch
  • 2:00 GWANW group projects and challenges
  • 3:15 Coffee Break
  • 3:45 Student Talks
  • 4:15 Outreach discussion
  • 6:30 Group dinner at Proof Pasco

Wednesday, June 28: LIGO Exploration Center (LExC) classroom and on Zoom

  • 9:00 Coffee
  • 9:15 GWANW group projects and challenges
  • 9:45 Student talks
  • 10:30 Break
  • 11:00 Student Talks
  • 12:00 Lunch

There is also a DCC event page for the meeting:

https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/DisplayMeeting?conferenceid=1163

Detailed Agenda (all times PDT)

Tuesday, June 27: LIGO Exploration Center (LExC) classroom and on Zoom

  • 9:00 Welcome
  • 9:30 Lab Tour
  • GW observatory status reports
    • 11:00 LISA Status Report: Tuck Stebbins (JILA/University of Colorado, Goddard Space Flight Center)
    • 11:20 LVK Status Report: Michael Ross (University of Washington)
    • 11:40 LHO Status Report: Naoki Aritomi (LHO)
  • 12:00 Lunch
  • GWANW group projects and challenges
    • 1:45 University of Washington Bothell: Joey Key
    • 2:00 University of Washington Seattle: Michael Ross
    • 2:15 Western Washington University: Svenja Fleischer
    • 2:30 University of British Columbia: Jess McIver
    • 2:45 University of Oregon: Ben Farr
  • 3:00 Coffee Break
  • Student Talks
    • 3:30 Clustering spectral noise to improve continuous gravitational wave detector characterization, Athena Baches and Abby Wang (UW Bothell)
    • 3:45 FInding EMRI signals in simulated LISA data, August Muller (UW Bothell)
  • 4:00 Outreach discussion
  • 6:30 Group dinner at Proof Pasco

Wednesday, June 28: LIGO Exploration Center (LExC) classroom and on Zoom

  • 9:00 Coffee
  • Observatory/Group Updates
    • 9:15 NANOGrav and University of Oregon Update: Xavier Siemens [z]
    • 9:30 University of British Columbia: Jeff Young
  • Student talks
    • 9:45 GSpyNetTree, Sofia Alvarez (UBC)
    • 10:00 Development of a Cylindrical Rotation Sensor, Shoshana Apple (UW Seattle)
    • 10:15 Simultaneous inference of CBC and PSD parameters, Sangeet Paul (UO)
  • 10:30 Break
  • Student Talks
    • 11:00 Searching for BBH Subpopulation in GWTC-3 with Hierarchical Mixture Models, Jaxen Godfrey (UO)
    • 11:15 Evaluating Environmental Noise at LIGO, Adrian Helmling-Cornell (UO)
    • 11:30 The Effects of a Global Lightning Background on LIGO Detectors, Matthew Ball (UO)
  • 12:00 Lunch

Local Organizing Committee

  • Amber Strunk
  • Jeff Kissel
  • Cassidy Eassa
  • McKenzie Munn
  • Ansel Neunzert
  • Svenja Fleischer

Past Meeting Websites