This page lists my ongoing and previous research projects
Understanding the astrophysical sources of gravitational wave signals in the Fourth Observing Run
2023-09 - Present
Ongoing
The fourth observing run of the international network of gravitational wave detectors places us on the cusp of a new era for gravitational wave astronomy. Detectors have now reached very high levels of sensitivity, and as a result the number of detections which are made each month has increased well-beyond what was possible less than five years ago. The detection rate will continue to increase in the coming years as the detectors approach and reach their design sensitivity. While this presents many new avenues for research, the substantially increased number of signals pose a considerable challenge to analysts. The fourth observing run represents a unique opportunity to test the new techniques which I, and my colleagues internationally, have been developing to rise to this challenge, allowing events to be analysed in an automated manner. This will allow a much larger number of events to be analysed than has previously been possible while maintaining the very high levels of quality assosciated with the international gravitational wave community's results.
Parameter estimation studies for LIGO & Virgo's third observing run
2020-02 - 2021-12
Complete
The third observing run of the advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors saw the total catalogue of all gravitational wave events increased several fold to 90. In order to handle such a large amount of new data I assisted the teams constructing three event catalogues, GWTC-2, GWTC-2.1, and GWTC-3 by coordinating and performing the parameter estimation analyses on 88 of the 90 events.
Asimov: a toolkit for managing and automating parameter estimation
2020-02 - Present
Ongoing
Modern gravitational wave analysis can involve multiple analysis pipelines operating over dozens or even hundreds of events. Managing this at scale is a challenge; asimov is designed to simplify the construction and monitoring of analyses.
Searching for gravitational wave signals from hyperbolic black hole encounters
December 2018 - Present
Ongoing
Gravitational waves are produced any time a mass accelerates, including when an object changes the direction it's travelling in. When massive black holes, travelling at hih velocities, come close to each other their mutual gravitational attraction can alter their trajectories, producing a gravitational effect analogous to Bremsstrahlung. The signal produced by these sources may be an observable source of gravitational wave 'burst' signals.
Modelling binary black hole waveforms using Gaussian process regression
October 2015 - Present
Ongoing
Understanding the waveform for a binary black hole coalescence is important for a number of data analysis tasks in gravitational wave astronomy, including parameter estimation and testing General Relativity. Producing precise waveforms is slow and computationally intensive, however. This project involves the development of accurate surrogate models which can be used in Bayesian inference.
7 Minutes of Science
November 2014 - January 2018
Completed
A public outreach event aimed at exhibiting the cutting-edge research work being carried out at the University of Glasgow.
Flare Finding in Solar Data
July 2014 - September 2014
Complete
An attempt to use Bayesian inference to find flaring events in data from the Kepler mission.
Flare Finding in Kepler
June 2013 - Present
Released
An attempt to use Bayesian inference to find flaring events in data from the Kepler mission.