Parallelising Finesse v3 for gravitational wave detector design and inference problems

CI: – Dr. D. Brown

Finesse (http://www.gwoptics.org/finesse) is an open source optical interferometer modelling tool that has been used in the gravitational community for the last 20 years. It allows users to simulate generic optical interferometers that are at the heart of gravitational wave detectors and model their dynamics, sensitivity to gravitational wave sources, and determine how noise and experimental defects limit their sensitivity.
This project aims to introduce new tools and features into the new version Finesse 3.0 to allow users to effortlessly parallelise their simulations. The changes will increase the productivity of users and significantly expand their ability to explore new technical designs for future detectors, along with diagnosing some of the complex issues that limit our currently operating detectors.
The final result will be a new Python module integrated into the newest version Finesse 3.0. This module will provide an easy to use interface to start and manage many Finesse instances running on local or remote clusters from one’s own machine. We will also explore how this new interface can enable better interactions with MCMC tools such as Bilby and PRISM to enable researchers exploring statistical inference problems based on instrumental rather than astrophysical data. Then lastly, new training materials and documentation will be generated to help users take full advantage of this work.