to: LSC members from: R. Weiss September 22, 2000 concerning: Upper limit groups At the August LSC meeting we established groups to work on setting upper limits on a variety of astrophysical sources using LIGO engineering data. LSC members signed up to join these groups at the meeting and subsequently by email to me. From the members that asked to join and with the advice of the LSC Executive Committee, I have chosen co-chairs of these groups. In each group one of the co-chairs has experience with the software being developed and the other has intimate experience with the commissioning of the LIGO interferometers. The groups are not closed and if there are still LSC members wishing to join please inform the co-chairs and me. The expectation is that by the Summer of 2001, the 2 Km interferometer at Hanford and the 4 Km at Livingston will be operating. The instruments (unless we are very lucky) will most likely not be at design sensitivity nor will they operate trouble free continuously, nevertheless for many types of source searches, the data will be the most sensitive ever taken and will merit analysis and publication. The upper limit groups are being asked to plan and carry out the analysis as well as to outline and draft the papers. The first step is for the groups to evolve an LSC data analysis proposal as described in the LSC White Paper on Data Analysis. (An example analysis proposal chaired by Alan Wiseman is posted on the LIGO/LSC web page.) The proposal will be evaluated by the LSC Executive Committee and posted on the web so that all LSC members can be knowledgeable of the work and contribute if they choose. We have added a fourth day to the March 2001 LSC meeting for the upper limit groups to meet and work. By the time of this meeting the proposals need to have been evaluated and posted, so that the proposals from the groups should be completed by the middle of January 2001. Much of the initial work can be done by telephone conference and since many LSC members will be attending the GWDAW meeting in December at Livingston/LSU, it would useful for the groups to meet at this meeting. We consider the publications from this process to be the first significant scientific output of the LIGO Project and will follow the LSC Publications and Presentation Policy. All members of the LIGO I LSC Collaboration will be co-authors of these papers. The upper limit groups and the co-chairs are listed below. Periodic Sources Co-chair Stuart Anderson, Mike Zucker ---------------------------------------------------------------- Stuart Anderson anderson_s@ligo.caltech.edu Steve Berukoff steveb@aei-potsdam.mpg.de David Chin dwchin@umich.edu Bob Coldwell coldwell@phys.ufl.edu Curt Cutler cutler@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Ron Drever rdrever@caltech.edu Sam Finn finn@phys.psu.edu Dick Gustafson gustafso@umich.edu Soumya Mohanty mohanty@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Alicia Sintes Olives sintes@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Maria Alessandra Papa papa@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Keith Riles kriles@umich.edu Bernie Schutz schutz@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Albert Vecchio vecchio@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Mike Zucker mike@ligo.mit.edu Stochastic Sources Co-chair Joe Romano, Peter Fritschel --------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce Allen ballen@gravity.phys.uwm.edu Sukanta Bose bose@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Ed Daw daw@lsuligo.phys.lsu.edu Mario Diaz mdiaz@utb1.utb.edu Ronald Drever rdrever@caltech.edu Eanna Flanagan flanagan@spacenet.tn.cornell.edu Peter Fritschel pf@ligo.mit.edu Joe Giaime giaime@lsuligo.phys.lsu.edu Bill Hamilton hamilton@dave.phys.lsu.edu Warren Johnson johnson@dave.phys.lsu.edu Mike Landry landry_m@ligo-wa.caltech.edu Jamie Rollins rollins@ligo.mit.edu Joe Romano jromono@utb1.utb.edu I.K. Siongheng Bernard Schutz schutz@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Albert Vecchio vecchio@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Bernard Whiting bernard@phys.ufl.edu Rainer Weiss weiss@ligo.mit.edu John Whelan jwhelan@utb1.utb.edu Inspiral Sources Co-chair Patrick Brady, Gabriela Gonzalez ------------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce Allen ballen@gravity.phys.uwm.edu Sukanta Bose bose@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Douglas Boyd Douglas.Boyd@astro.cf.ac.uk Patrick Brady patrick@gravity.phys.uwm.edu Duncan Brown duncan@gravity.phys.uwm.edu Jordan Camp camp_j@ligo.caltech.edu Jolien Creighton jolien@gravity.phys.uwm.edu S.V. Dhurander sdh@iucaa.ernet.in Gabriela Gonzalez gig1@psu.edu Gregg Harry gharry@phy.syr.edu Tom Prince prince@srl.caltech.edu David Reitze reitze@phys.ufl.edu B.S. Sathyaprakash B.Sathyaprakash@astro.cf.ac.uk Peter Shawhan shawhan_p@ligo.caltech.edu Burst Sources Co-chair Sam Finn, Peter Saulson ----------------------------------------------------------- Barry Barish barish@ligo.caltech.edu Jim Brau jimbrau@faraday.uoregon.edu Kent Blackburn blackburn_k@ligo.caltech.edu Ed Daw daw@lsuligo.phys.lsu.edu Ronald Drever rdrever@caltech.edu Sam Finn finn@phys.psu.edu Ray Frey rayfrey@cosmic.uoregon.edu Joe Giaime giaime@lsuligo.phys.lsu.edu Gabriela Gonzalez gig1@psu.edu Bill Hamilton hamilton@dave.phys.lsu.edu Warren Johnson johnson@dave.phys.lsu.edu Masahiro Ito S. Klimenko klimenko@phys.ufl.edu Al Lazzarini lazz@ligo.caltech.edu Szabi Marka marka_s@ligo.caltech.edu Genakh Mitselmakher mitselmakher@phys.ufl.edu Soumya Mohanty mohanty@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Benoit Mours mours_b@ligo.caltech.edu Soma Mukherjee soma@aei-potsdam.mpg.de Fred Raab fjr@ligo.caltech.edu Ravha Rahkola Peter Saulson saulson@ligo-la.caltech.edu Rick Savage savage_r@ligo.caltech.edu David Shoemaker dhs@ligo.mit.edu Daniel Sigg sigg_d@ligo.caltech.edu I.K.Siongheng Julien Sylvestre julien@ligo.mit.edu Alan Weinstein ajw@ligo.caltech.edu Mike Zucker mike@ligo.mit.edu