Michele Zanolin

Title
Professor of Physics
Email
Department
Physics and Astronomy Department
College
College of Arts & Sciences
Daytona College of Arts & Sciences
Michele Zanolin
  • Ph.D. - Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, Universita degli Studi di Parma
  • PS 117L: Introductory Physics II Lab
  • PS 413: Particle Physics Cosmology II
  • PS 161: Physics I & II for Engineers
  • PS 490: Senior Research Thesis, Part I
  • PS 491: Sr Research Thesis, Part II

Research

My research is in experimental general relativity, focusing mostly upon gravitational wave detection with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Topics that I devote particular attention to are:

1) Search for gravitational wave bursts from optical supernovae

When a sufficiently massive star dies, it can result in a massive explosion called a supernova. For decades, we have been able to see the electromagnetic results of these explosions, but now, with the help of the data from interferometers, we hope to generate evidence for the gravitational waves emitted by these explosions and understand better their physical mechanism. We are developing an algorithm that allows one to analyze weeks of interferometer data around the recorded time of the supernova optical signatures. The tool is to modify an existing algorithm currently used for all-sky searches of un-modeled gravitational wave (GW) transients: Coherent Waveburst. This code combines the signals from different interferometers in a coherent way. We are customizing it to only be sensitive to signals from directions consistent with the supernova location, and then track that location during several sidereal days. This approach is motivated by the desire to increase the sensitivity and solve one of the problems in observing GWs from optical supernovae: the large uncertainty in the exact time of emission of the GWs. The observed optical signal is not usually the beginning of the supernova light curve, which might not be the exact time of emission of the gravitational wave. More explicitly, if the mechanism that generates these waves is the acoustic bounce of the expanding gasses off the solid core, it can reinitialize the fusion process and the visible explosion. This bounce occurs within seconds of the explosion, but because of the significant turmoil of these explosions, it can take up to a day for the first electromagnetic signals to escape the explosion. Then, the fact that the first EM emissions are rarely observed directly can increase the time uncertainty to weeks. In this search, we analyze supernova events recorded by astronomers during the S6 data run.

2) Estimation of parameters from gravitational wave transients and other high-precision measurements

High-precision measurements in modern astrophysics and cosmology have fantastic goals that range from observing the properties of the cosmic microwave background to listening to the symphonies of the universe recorded in the perturbations of its metric. However, how many of these effects are observable by LIGO? Where should we focus our brain and financial resources? The methodology described in Phys.Rev. D81 (2010) 124048 and Phys.Rev. D84 (2011) 104020 extends the standard results on parameter estimation based on the Fisher information matrix, allowing for a deeper understanding of the errors in estimating parameters from weak signals. The tool is asymptotic expansions inspired by the Dyson equation that allow one to calculate analytically the moments of an estimator as inverse powers of the signal-to-noise ratio (and/or the number of measurements if an experiment allows it). There are several applications of this methodology, for example:

  • How well can we estimate physical parameters (and the physics attached) and the direction of arrival from gravitational wave transients?
  • Can we (or will we) be able to distinguish between standard GR and alternative models of gravity?
  • Will we be able to detect non-Gaussianites in the CMB?


Dr. Zanolin Group News

  • 2/2021: New paper on the detectability of GWs from a Galactic CCSN with cWB sent to LIGO P and P. (LIGO-P2100038)
  • 1/2021: New paper on a 3+1 formulation of the standard-model extension Gravity sector accepted in PRD. Work led by graduate student Kellie Ault O'Neal.
  • 12/2020: Simulations for Multi-Messenger Astronomy (S4MMA) workshop.
  • 9/2020: Colter Richardson, Skylar Kemper and Bradd Ratto were awarded funding from the undergraduate research institute. Yuka Lin was awarded funding from NASA. 
  • 8/2020: Three Papers on Core-Collapse Supernovae physics were published: Detecting SASI oscillations in neutrino luminosity (PRD), Optically triggered search for CCSNE GWs in O1-O2 data (PRD), and ML application to CCSNe detections in single IFO data (with M.Cavaglia' group).
  • 3/2020: Dr. Zanolin appointed as faculty representative to the Board of Trustees.
  • 7/2019: Some ideas on how to probe for gravitons with laser interferometers.
  • 7/2018: Marek Szczepanczyk PhD Defense.
  • 7/2018: NSF Award.
  • 4/2018: Dr. Zanolin was promoted to full professor. Grateful for the support of the University.
  • 3/2018: New movie from Kai Staats.
  • 2/2018: Jasmine Kiranijot Gillleads's new paper on the application of Bayesian studies on GWs from Core-Collapse Supernovae paper.
  • 1/2018: Marek Szczepanczyk was selected for a LIGO fellowship to work on high-frequency hardware injections at the Hanford Observatory.

2015 Researcher of the Year, Arizona campus

2012 Researcher of the Year, College of Arts & Sciences

2011 Researcher of the Year, Arizona campus

2010 Researcher of the Year, College of Arts & Sciences