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Continuous Gravitational Waves School
Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University
Beijing, China
7th - 11th July 2024

Details

Dates: July 7 - July 11, 2024.

Location: Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing, China.

This five-day school will be held between Sunday 7th July 2024 until Thursday 11th July 2024 and it will be hosted at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) in Peking University, in Beijing, China. This will be the very first dedicated continuous gravitational waves meeting in China and it will be in the form of a school, aimed primarily at undergraduates and postgraduates, though postdocs and faculty are also welcome. Priority will be given to domestic (Chinese) students, though international students will be considered if places are available, of which there will be between 30-50 in total. 

CW_school_conference_photo_compressed.PNG

Speakers

 The material will be at an introductory level and will be delivered as a series of lectures by international experts:

  • Prof. Maria Alessandra Papa (Albert Einstein Institute/Leibniz University Hannover)

  • Prof. Ian Jones (University of Southampton)

  • Dr. David Keitel (University of the Balearic Islands)

  • Dr. Lilli Sun (Australian National University)

There will also be guest speakers which include:

  • Dr. Siyuan Chen (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Prof. Yiming Hu (Sun Yat-sen University)

  • Prof. Haixing Miao (Tsinghua University)

  • Dr. Andrew Miller (Nikhef/Utrecht University)

  • Dr. Jing Ming (Albert Einstein Institute)

  • Dr. Heng Xu (National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Program

The aim of the school is to provide a basic introduction to several concepts that arise in the topic of continuous gravitational waves. These include:

  • Source modelling

    • Neutron star mountains​

    • Neutron star precession

    • r-modes

    • Boson clouds around spinning black holes

    • Other dark matter candidates

  • Detection and data analysis

    • F-statistic

    • LVK searches​

    • Searches using open-data

    • Einstein@Home

    • LVK and AEI results

    • Next-generation detectors

  • Continuous gravitational waves in non-ground based detectors

    • Space-based detectors​

    • Pulsar timing arrays

These topics will be covered by a series of lectures but there will also be guest speakers who will complement the main lecture series. Additionally, there will be a problem class, a discussion session, and hands-on tutorials (e.g. learning how to use PyFstat) throughout the week. The final afternoon will be dedicated to extending any newly-acquired knowledge and participants will have an opportunity to share their research as a short (~10 minute) talk.

 

The school will also include social events, such as a conference dinner and a visit to the nearby Summer Palace. The hope is that these social events help form connections that could one day lead to collaborations. 

LOC: Yiming Dong, Peixiang Ji, Min Sun, Garvin Yim

SOC: Xian Chen, Ian Jones, David Keitel, Maria Alessandra Papa, Lilli Sun, Garvin Yim

Schedule

You can download a full detailed PDF version of the schedule by clicking here, including the order of the contributed talks.  Alternatively, you can find a colour-coded version of the school's schedule below:

Screenshot 2024-07-02 at 23.30.12.png

Talks

You can download the school's talks and material down below:

Garvin Yim - Welcome

Lecture 1 - Ian Jones - Introduction to Continuous Gravitational Waves

Lecture 2 - David Keitel - Introduction to Continuous Gravitational Wave Detection and Data Analysis

Lecture 3 - Yiming Hu - Continuous Gravitational Waves in Space-based Detectors

Lecture 4 - Ian Jones - Neutron Star Mountains

Lecture 5 - Haixing Miao - Ground-based Gravitational Wave Detectors

Lecture 6 - Heng Xu - Pulsar Timing

Lecture 7 - Ian Jones - Neutron Star Precession 

Lecture 8 - Maria Alessandra Papa - The F-statistic

Lecture 9 - David Keitel - PyFstat Tutorial

Below are the materials needed for the PyFstat tutorial:

PyFstat Installation Guide

pyfstat.yml (Please download from here, using code XblH)

PyFstat_example_1_spectrogram.ipynb

PyFstat_example_2_twoF_cumulative.ipynb

PyFstat_example_3_simple_mcmc_vs_grid_comparison.ipynb

PyFstat Tutorial Solutions

Lecture 10 - Ian Jones - Neutron Star Oscillations and r-modes

Lecture 11 - Lilli Sun - Boson Clouds

Lecture 12 - David Keitel - LVK Searches and Results

Lecture 13 - Maria Alessandra Papa - Using Open Data

Lecture 14 - Jing Ming - Einstein@Home

Lecture 15 - Siyuan Chen - Continuous Gravitational Waves in Pulsar Timing Arrays

Lecture 16 - Andrew Miller - Continuous Gravitational Waves from Dark Matter

Lecture 17 - Lilli Sun - Hidden Markov Models

Lecture 18 - Maria Alessandra Papa - Results from the Albert Einstein Institute

Lecture 19 - Ian Jones - Problem Class

Garvin Yim - Final Remarks

How to get to KIAA

The first day of the school (Sunday 7th July) will be held at a different venue compared to the rest of the week. On the first day, you will not be going to KIAA but instead to this address:

Chinese Name: 北京勺园宾馆

Chinese Address: 海淀区颐和园路5号北京大学校内勺园7号楼

Apple Maps Name: Beijing Shaoyuan Hotel

Google Maps Name: Peking University Zhengda International Centre (not exactly, but it’ll do)

From the second day onwards, we will be based at the Auditorium at KIAA:

 

Chinese Name: 北京大学科维理天文与天体物理研究所

Chinese Address: 海淀区颐和园路5号北京大学

Apple Maps Name: Peking University Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics

Google Maps Name: Peking University Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics

Fees, accommodation and visas

There will be a participation fee of ¥800 which includes the conference dinner and has been subsidised thanks to NSFC funding (Grant number: 12247180). An email about payment will be sent out once a list of participants has been established.

We also ask participants to book their own accommodation. We can provide a hotel room adjacent to Peking University (in Zhongguanyuan Global Village, 北京大学中关新园, or at the FX Hotel, 富驿时尚酒店) and this will cost approximately ¥400-500 per night. This should be organised in advance by emailing both Min Sun (minsun1206@pku.edu.cn) and Garvin Yim (g.yim@pku.edu.cn).

Note that international participants may require a visa to enter China. However, it was recently announced that citizens from certain countries are allowed to come to China visa-free for 15 days. The allowed countries are: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore (30 days), Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg. Please check with your own local Chinese embassy for the latest information. If you require an invitation letter, please email Garvin Yim (g.yim@pku.edu.cn) and include the following information:

  • Full name on passport

  • Passport number

  • Date of birth

  • Sex

  • Travel dates

  • Institution details (address and phone number)

Registration

If you are interested in attending, then please submit your registration below. 

 

The deadline for registering will be Tuesday 28th May 2024 at 23:59 (Chinese Standard Time). 

 

If you would like to give a talk, then leave a (preliminary) title in the "Title of Talk" box below, otherwise, leave it blank. You can always register first and email me at a later date if you decide you want to give a talk, but make sure to do so before the registration deadline. My email is g.yim@pku.edu.cn.

We also ask participants to submit one question that can be used as a discussion starter for the discussion session. For example, your question could be "How can we get continuous gravitational waves from black holes?" or "How does one join in the search effort for continuous gravitational waves?". Your question will be kept anonymous.

Position
Would you like us to reserve a hotel room for you? If yes, please still contact Min Sun and myself.

Thanks for submitting!

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