Detecting Gravitational Waves For Multi Messenger Astronomy

Gravitational waves, ripples in space-time that cause the physical distance between points to change in time, were first predicted by Albert Einstein in the early twentieth century. One of the most promising sources of gravitational waves was thought to be the merger of binary neutron stars, which were also believed to generate extremely energetic bursts of light known as gamma-ray bursts and an optical transient known as a kilonova. Large interferometers capable of measuring distances of 10^18 m were built to detect gravitational waves. My dissertation research has been focused on detecting gravitational waves rapidly for the purpose of searching for electromagnetic or other signals from merging neutron star binaries. I contributed to the first-ever detection of gravitational waves in 2015, and every detection since. My work to rapidly identify new gravitational wave detections led to the first joint multi-messenger detection made in 30 years on August 17, 2017, when gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger were observed in coincidence with a short gamma-ray burst, which led astronomers around the world to point their instruments at the region of the sky where the signal was estimated to have came from in time to observe counterparts across several electromagnetic bands. In this dissertation I will discuss each of these historical detections and the analysis I co-developed and helped perform.