Gabriela González

Boyd Professor of Physics

Ph.D., 1995 - Syracuse University

Research Interests

Experimental General Relativity

Prof. González research interest is in the detection of gravitational waves with interferometric detectors, such as the one in the LIGO Livingston Observatory, in Livingston, LA. She has published several papers on the specific predictions of Brownian motion as a limiting sources to the detectors' sensitivity. She was a founding member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, and has participated intensely in the commissioning of the LIGO detector at the Livingston Observatory since joining LSU in 2001, in issues related to alignment sensing and control. Her group is very involved in the instrumental characterization and calibration of the data collected in the data-taking Science Runs performed by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC). From 2000 to 2007, she co-led one of the four data analysis groups in the Collaboration, dedicated to the search of gravitational waves generated by binary systems of compact objects (neutron stars or black holes) in the final inspiraling stage before coalescence. In 2008-2011, she led the LSc detector characterization working group. In 2011, she was elected as the LSC spokesperson.

Current and Select Publication

• J. Abadie et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration), "Calibration of the LIGO Gravitational Wave Detectors in the Fifth Science Run," Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A624 (2010) 223.
• J. Abadie et al. (The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and The VIRGO Collaboration), " Predictions for the Rates of Compact Binary Coalescences Observable by Ground-based Gravitational- wave Detectors, Class. Quantum Grav. 27 (2010) 173001.
• J Slutsky, L Blackburn, D A Brown, L Cadonati, J Cain, M Cavagli, S Chatterji, N Christensen, M Coughlin, S Desai, G Gonzlez, T Isogai, E Katsavounidis, B Rankins, T Reed, K Riles, P Shawhan, J R Smith, N Zotov and J Zweizig, " Methods for reducing false alarms in searches for compact binary coalescences in LIGO data," Class. Quantum Grav. 27 (2010) 165023.
• B. Abbott et al. (LIGO Scientific Collaboration), "Search for Gravitational Waves from Low Mass Binary Coalescences in the First Year of LIGO’s S5 Data," Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 122001.
• R K Kopparapu, C Hanna, V Kalogera, R O'Shaughnessy, G Gonzalez, PR Brady, and S Fairhurst, "Host Galaxies Catalog Used in LIGO Searches for Compact Binary Coalescence Events," The Astrophysical Journal 675:14591467, 2008 March 10.
• G Gonzalez (for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration), "Status of LIGO data analysis," Class. Quantum Grav. 21 (2004) S1575-S1583.