Proceedings of the 10th Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop, Brownsville, Texas, USA, 14–17 December 2005

From the 14th through to the 17th of December, last year (2005), the Tenth Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop took place in Brownsville, Texas. This annual event has become the established venue for presenting and discussing new results and techniques in this crucial subfield of gravitational wave astronomy. A major attraction of the event is that scientists working with all possible instruments (be it ground based or space based, of the resonant kind or interferometric) gather to discuss their projects and report on the status of their observations. The Center for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at the University of Texas at Brownsville, USA, (a research centre funded by the NASA University Research Centers program) was the proud host of the gathering this time. As in previous years, GWDAW-10 was well attended with about 90 participants from over nine countries worldwide. The meeting has taken place at a time that is setting the tone for the future of the field. As it was reported in the detector status session, one of the major observational facilities in the world, the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) interferometers have achieved design sensitivity. The strain sensitivity of 10-21 RMS integrated over a 100 Hz bandwidth was not long ago considered an almost impossible task. The significance of this issue does not reside only in the engineering merit of the achievement but in the possibility of establishing meaningful observational constraints on the strength of gravitational radiation incident on Earth, and consequently on the nature of astrophysical sources and events. Besides its traditional focus on data analysis issues, GWDAW has also become a forum of interaction between relativistic astrophysics and gravitational wave data analysis. As the new generation of high sensitivity detectors head towards the possibility of a first detection, the importance of this interaction cannot be overstated. The number of astrophysics talks was large enough that they had to be divided into two separate sessions, dedicated to the different frequency bands corresponding to ground and space based detectors respectively. Among other non-traditional presentations were the results on efforts to use pulsar timing for monitoring the ultra-low frequency band and talks on the recent breakthroughs in Black Hole merger calculations. Another feature of the conference was the growth in the number of talks dedicated to the data analysis challenges facing the LISA mission. In fact, the conference was followed by a half-day workshop dedicated entirely to LISA. This heightened level of activity comes at a time when budget cuts at NASA have put a cloud on the future of the mission. In a tribute to the LISA project leadership, it was heartening to see the scientific community rising to the challenge by increasing the pace of work towards building a solid case for LISA rather than backing down. The relevance of GWDAW to this effort will be strengthened in Dec 2006 with the planned presentation of results from the ongoing mock LISA data challenge that was opened in July 2006 at the 6th LISA symposium. The mainstay of the conference continued to be the exciting flow of results from ever improving ground based detectors, both the large interferometric and the cryogenic resonant mass ones. At the start of the conference, LIGO had just embarked on its most ambitious data taking run yet with all three of its detectors operating at design sensitivity. Virgo was moving steadily on the commissioning road and GEO600 and TAMA300 were already operating with remarkable stability. Indeed the overall feeling was that the field might finally be crossing the threshold where we will see the very first astrophysical signals. This excitement was reflected in the large number of papers concerned with joint analysis of data from a network of interferometers. We learnt also about the plans and status for the continued monitoring of the Kilo-Hertz band by the worldwide network of resonant mass detectors. Not surprisingly, besides the many excellent oral and poster presentations, we are sure that people had a lot to talk about during the breaks at this conference! The facilities where the conference was held, the newly completed Education and Business Complex with a state of the art conference room, played a not insignificant role in promoting this interaction. Another highly successful event associated with GWDAW-10 was the public lecture given by Prof. Bruce Allen to an audience of mostly high school students. Following the lecture, one local high school (Porter High School) actually topped the many national and international teams in this category that are contributing computer cycles to the Einstein@Home project. Einstein@Home is the ambitious project to search for continuous signals using distributed computing power from volunteers through the World Wide Web. The Einstein@Home screensaver image formed the background of the GWDAW-10 conference poster. In conclusion we would like to thank the many sources of help we received in organizing this conference. We had a dedicated and serious scientific organizing committee, which set high standards for the various sessions. The UTB administrators gave the organization of GWDAW-10 the highest priority and many roadblocks were smoothed as a result! The local organizing committee worked extremely hard and exceptionally well as a team to host a very successful conference. Finally, we thank all the participants for coming to Brownsville, Texas. If the conference was a success it was thanks to their enthusiasm and warm-hearted support. The following institutions and companies have sponsored the 10th GWDAW: The USA National Science Foundation, the USA National Aeronautics and Space Administration, LIGO, Physics Today, Vernier, Continental Airlines, Cynmar Corporation, Imaginova.