INFN

Gamma rays, Gravitational waves, Visiting institute (TNA)

INFN is the Italian research agency dedicated to the study of the fundamental constituents of matter and the laws that govern them. It conducts theoretical and experimental research in the fields of subnuclear, nuclear and astroparticle physics. All of the INFN’s research activities are undertaken within a framework of international competition, in close collaboration with Italian Universities on the basis of solid academic partnerships.

Scientific activities are managed by five National Scientific Committees (CSN) that act as advisory bodies to the governing council. CSN2 covers astroparticle physics performing studies of cosmic background radiation, cosmic rays, neutrinos, GWs, VHE gamma rays, rare particles, and particles that are thought to constitute dark matter. INFN drives the GW search and funds the Virgo experiment.

Main contact for TNA call: Giancarlo Cella

 

Available expertise

The group comprehends scientists with strong expertise on gravitational wave (GW) and multi-messenger (GW and photons) data analysis, as well as multi-messenger modeling of transient sources. They are active members in the LVK collaborations, ET observatory, GRAWITA, ENGRAVE, IVOA, CTA and Fermi with particular interest in the MMA aspects. In the following we give a list of the available expertise, referencing the relevant subgroup INFN Firenze-Urbino and Università di Firenze

  • low-latency pipelines for modeled transients signals

  • monitoring interferometer noise status.

INFN Perugia and Università di Perugia

  • electromagnetic and neutrino follow-ups of GW events in the context of the Virtual Observatory Standards and Tools applying the FAIR principles, in particular concerning

    • visibility, allocated time and pointing sequences from a network of facilities

    • Footprints telescope tilings

    • Temporal and spatial real-time/archive transient researches

    • 2D and 3D gravitational-sky localizations to define followup strategies: galaxy targets vs wilde field observations.

    • handling large galaxy catalogs with a hierarchical tiling mechanism

    • parsing GCN/VOevent contents to set user-defined follow-up strategies

INFN Pisa and Università di Pisa

  • parameter estimation for GW events (transient events);

  • evaluation of foreseen GW detector network performances for the planned observing runs, and in particular estimate for probability of multimessenger events.

  • modeling of multi-messenger (GWs and gamma-rays) emission from merging binary systems of compact objects

  • investigation of the GW observing scenarios under different assumptions; this includes studies relevant for the preparation of observational proposals for the electromagnetic follow-up of GW transient events

  • public GW alerts sent by the LVK collaboration

  • usage of public GW data analysis tools

INFN Roma 1, Università La Sapienza Roma, Università di Trento, Universitá di Parma

  • general searches for GW transients and time-resolved spectroscopy of GW transients

  • GW data analysis for persistent and quasi-persistent GW signals

  • unmodeled transient searches using coherent WaveBurst

  • low latency searches for unmodeled transient using coherent WaveBurst

  • compact binary coincident and coherent searches, including the construction and validation of template banks

  • joint gravitational-wave and gamma-ray searches

  • gravitational waves data analysis for persistent and quasi-persistent GW signals

  • low latency alert infrastructure of the LVK collaboration

  • low latency trigger significance

  • trigger public data access quality and their interpretation

  • general searches for GW transients and time-resolved spectroscopy of GW transients

INFN Roma Tor Vergata, Università di Roma Tor Vergata

  • GW astronomy to that of high-energy gamma rays, with particular focus on data analysis and modeling related to electro-magnetic counterparts of GW events and high-energy related fundamental physics

  • high-energy analysis of GW follow ups using the publicly available Python package Gammapy: localization, spectral analysis and production of light curves of GRB

  • parameter estimation techniques for electro-magnetic counterparts of GW – prompt and afterglow emission of GRBs, kilonova.

  • GW alert contents

  • observing scenarios

 

Available tools

Coherent WaveBurst (https://gwburst.gitlab.io/) Coherent WaveBurst (cWB) is a data analysis pipeline designed for detection and reconstruction of gravitational-wave (GW) transients with the worldwide network of GW detectors. By using wavelets, it explores the data time-frequency structure and finds generic GW signals with weak (or none) assumptions on the source model.

FIGARO(https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/517/1/L5/6692889) a ready to use and publicly available software tool that relies on Bayesian nonparametrics. FIGARO is designed to run in parallel with parameter estimation algorithms to provide updated three-dimensional volume localization information. Differently from any existing algorithms, the analytical nature of the FIGARO reconstruction allows a ranking of the entries of galaxy catalogues by their probability of being the host of a gravitational wave event, hence providing an additional tool for a prompt electromagnetic follow up of gravitational waves.

GWsky (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213133722000026) is a suite of tools based on Virtual Observatory standards designed to efficiently compute gravitational-wave sky localisation and its visibility for a network of observatories. The methodology allows for simultaneous spatial and temporal operations between localisation maps of transient candidates, gravitational-wave sources, and high-energy or neutrino events. GWsky enables users to perform queries from IVOA data providers, such as VizieR, facilitating access to a wide range of astronomical catalogues and images for multi-messenger and cosmological research. Furthermore, these tools allow for the generation of accurate sequences of telescope pointings (tiles), and prompt adjustments of the observing schedules.

GLADEnet (https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2024/04/aa48073-23/aa48073-23.html) is a web interactive tool that allows us to identify catalogued galaxies and to assess the incompleteness of the catalogue of galaxies in real time across the gravitational-wave sky localisation.

Gammapy (https://gammapy.org/) is an open-source Python package for gamma-ray astronomy built on Numpy, Scipy and Astropy. It is used as core library for the Science Analysis tools of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), recommended by the H.E.S.S. collaboration to be used for Science publications, and is already widely used in the analysis of existing gamma-ray instruments, such as MAGIC, VERITAS and HAWC.

GRANITE () a rapid and easy to use parameter estimation and model selection infrastructure for GW data analysis. Its integration with search tools and rapid localisation tools such as FIGARO is foreseen

PyCBC (https://pycbc.org/) is a software package used to explore astrophysical sources of gravitational waves. It contains algorithms that can detect coalescing compact binaries and measure the astrophysical parameters of detected sources. PyCBC was used in the first direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO and is used in the ongoing analysis of LIGO and Virgo data. PyCBC was featured in Physics World as a good example of a large collaboration publishing its research products, including its software.

Involved scientists

Aldo Morselli

Gonzalo Rodriquez Fernandez is a research at INFN Tor Vergata. He has started his career at the Pierre Auger Observatory working on the reconstruction analysis of inclined showers. Since 2012, he has been an active member of the CTAO Collaboration, focusing on dark matter searchers, gamma rays bursts. He is involved in multi-messenger data analysis with next generation Gravitational Wave and CTAO observatory.

Sabrina D’Antonio is a Senior reserchert at INFN Rome. Her career began within the INFN ROG group, where she developed data analysis procedures for detecting short-lived gravitational waves (GW) signals for first-generation resonant detectors Explorer and Nautilus. Since 2006, she has been an active member of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaboration, focusing on various aspects of GW research. Her primary interests include the data analysis of continuous gravitational waves (CW), typically emitted by rotating neutron stars or exotic sources like ultralight scalar boson clouds surrounding Kerr black holes. Additionally, she is involved in detector data characterization and high-performance computing.

Viviana Fafone

Barbara Patricelli is a researcher at the Physics Department of the University of Pisa. At the beginning of her career her research work was focused on the study of Gamma Ray Bursts, with contributions both to theoretical modelling and data analysis; she was also involved in the Very-High Energy experiments Milagro and HAWC. On 2015 she joined the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration and started to work on Gravitational Wave and multi-messenger astrophysics. She is currently a co-chair of the LVK Multi-messenger Transient Searches working group. Her main research interest is the multi-messenger study of transient sources, especially compact coalescing binaries and she is involved in both multi-messenger data analysis and investigation of multimessenger prospects with next generation Gravitational Wave and Electromagnetic detectors.

Giancarlo Cella is a senior researcher at INFN Pisa. After an initial background in theoretical high energy physics and numerical computing, he has been working on gravitational waves as a member of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaboration since 1996. He coordinated the scientific group working on stochastic backgrounds of gravitational waves, and later was a co-chair of LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA data analysis activities. His main interests are about stochastic background of gravitational waves, multimessenger studies, detector improvements, detector’s noise modelization and mitigation, gravitational wave phenomenology.

Walter Del Pozzo

Mateusz Bawaj

Giuseppe Greco is a technology researcher at INFN and a member of the Virgo and Einstein Telescope (ET) collaborations. He specializes in multi-messenger astronomy research, where he develops practical tools and advanced methods within several European projects, such as ASTERICS, ESCAPE, and AHEAD, utilizing the Virtual Observatory (VO) framework. Giuseppe is an expert in the standards and tools recommended by the International Virtual Observatory Alliance, specifically for multi-messenger cosmology and the electromagnetic follow-ups of gravitational-wave sources. Additionally, he has extensive experience in creating tutorials and educational materials, facilitating the training and support of the scientific community in effectively using these tools and methodologies. His contributions also include organizing workshops and providing hands-on training sessions to enhance collaborative efforts in multi-messenger research.

Sara Cutini is a researcher at INFN Perugia section. She obtained her Master’s Degree and PhD at physics faculty at the University of Perugia in Italy. She has always been involved in astrophysics and space science observing the sky exploiting the performances of Fermi-LAT Telescope with a particular interest in the extragalactic sky with the follow-up of GRB emission. She plays an important role in the multi-messenger group in Perugia, since her activity is dedicated to developing strategies for the follow-up of GW trigger using Fermi-LAT data and optical telescopes.

Federica Legger is a staff scientist at INFN. She studied Physics at the University of Turin in Italy, and graduated from EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) in Switzerland with a thesis on the data acquisition electronics of the LHCb experiment at CERN. She is currently participating in distributed computing activities for the future gravitational wave interferometer Einstein Telescope, for the Virgo experiment at EGO (European Gravitational Observatory), and for the CMS experiment at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider).

Stefano Bagnasco is a technology research director at INFN. He has decennal experience in the design, realization and management of large-scale computing infrastructures. After many years in the High Energy and Nuclear Physics fields he is now working on Gravitational Waves as a Computing Coordinator in the Virgo collaboration and e-Infrastructure Board co-chair of the Einstein Telescope collaboration.

Sara Vellero

Francesca Bucci

Gianluca Guidi

Massimo Lenti is an Associate Professor at the University of Firenze. His research interests span over gravitational wave physics and detector characterization. He is supervising two PhD students involved in gravitational waves sources sky localization and multimessenger physics. He is part of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration.

Francesco Pannarale is an Associate Professor at the Sapienza – University of Rome. His research interests are in gravitational-wave physics and multimessenger astronomy, and they range from modelling compact binary sources to data analysis. He was at the forefront of the joint observation of GW170817 and GRB 170817A. He is currently serving as co-chair of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Data Analysis Council.

Marco Drago is an associate professor in Roma La Sapienza, he has been working in gravitational wave data analysis since master thesis, starting analyzing data from resonant bar detectors and then joining LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaboration in 2008. He has been one of the responsible for the low-latency data analysis since the first run of Advanced Detector for the Burst group, in particular the coherent Waveburst algorithm. His main interests are burst analysis, detector characterization, multi-messenger astronomy.

Giovanni Andrea Prodi is head of the Laboratory of Experimental Gravitation at the Physics Department of the University of Trento. He has been co-chair of the Burst working group and of the Data Analysis Council of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaborations. His main scientific focus is on the detection and characterization of transient gravitational waves of generic morphology on data from the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA observatories, exploiting minimal assumptions. His activities include data driven tests of General Relativity and search for rare features in the gravitational waves emitted by compact binary coalescences, as well as the search for yet undetected gravitational wave transient sources.

Roberto De Pietri is an associate professor of theoretical physics working at the Department of Mathematical, Physical, and Computer Sciences at Parma University. He is a member of the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaboration, where he is the co-chair of the Working Group, which deals with generating and distributing gravitational alerts. He is an expert in high-performance computing and parallel systems and the numerical simulation of general relativity, particularly of the gravitational signal generated by the collision and merger of two neutron stars. His primary interest is in using gravitational wave signals to prompt multi-messenger observation of astrophysical events.