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Full-Text Articles in Cosmology, Relativity, and Gravity

Production Of Cosmological Observables During The Inflationary Epoch, Cody Goolsby-Cole Nov 2017

Production Of Cosmological Observables During The Inflationary Epoch, Cody Goolsby-Cole

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation proposal explores the production of present day cosmological observables which might have been produced during the inflationary era. The first observable is the current net electric charge of our observable universe produced by charge fluctuations during inflation. Next, we examine the possibility of a signal in the primordial gravitational wave power spectrum produced by a scalar field with a time dependent mass. Finally, we examine primordial magnetic fields produced during inflation through the Ratra model coupling with the Schwinger effect.


Environmentally Driven Galaxy Evolution And Quenching: Insights From The Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium, Joseph Burchett Nov 2017

Environmentally Driven Galaxy Evolution And Quenching: Insights From The Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium, Joseph Burchett

Doctoral Dissertations

The gaseous halos of galaxies -- the circumgalactic medium (CGM) -- serve as interfaces playing host to the fueling and feedback processes that sustain and regulate star formation. Furthermore, interactions between galaxies one with another and with larger scale structure, such as galaxy cluster halos, must necessarily act through the CGM. This dissertation examines the CGM as traced by H I, C IV, and O VI absorption lines across wide range of halo environments, from isolated dwarf galaxies with M* < 108 Msun to galaxy clusters with Mhalo > 1014 Msun. By first conducting a blind …


Gravitational Wave Behavior At A Vacuum-Matter Interface, Jake Litterer May 2017

Gravitational Wave Behavior At A Vacuum-Matter Interface, Jake Litterer

Honors Program Theses

In classical electrodynamics, boundary conditions of the E and B fields are derived from Maxwell's equations, which are used to derive the Fresnel equations describing the behavior of a wave at an interface between media with given indices of refraction. Though electrodynamics and gravity are in some instances strikingly analogous, boundary conditions in general relativity are somewhat more opaque. We will see that while while continuity of the metric must be true in general, discontinuity of the extrinsic curvature of spacetime, while allowed by the Einstein field equations, results in a singularity in the energy-momentum tensor. This singularity is interpreted …


Gravity Wave And Turbulence Transport In The Mesopause Region, Yafang Guo Jan 2017

Gravity Wave And Turbulence Transport In The Mesopause Region, Yafang Guo

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Vertical transport due to dissipating gravity waves and turbulence in the mesopause region (85-100 km) are analyzed with observational data obtained from a narrow-band sodium wind/temperature lidar located at Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO), Cerro Pach´on (30.25 S, 70.73 W), Chile. The Na lidar at ALO has been in regular operation since 2010. The upgrade of the lidar system in May 2014 resulted in great improvements of the signal levels, which enabled data acquisition of high temporal and vertical resolutions reaching 6 s and 25 m. Traditional data processing utilizes signals at lower resolutions, typically at 60 s and 500 m, …


Two Topics In Astrophysics: Exoplanetary Gravitational Microlensing And Radio Interferometry, Eleanor Sara Turrell Jan 2017

Two Topics In Astrophysics: Exoplanetary Gravitational Microlensing And Radio Interferometry, Eleanor Sara Turrell

Senior Projects Spring 2017

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Science, Mathematics and Computing of Bard College.


Series Solutions Of Polarized Gowdy Universes, Doniray Brusaferro Jan 2017

Series Solutions Of Polarized Gowdy Universes, Doniray Brusaferro

Theses and Dissertations

Einstein's field equations are a system of ten partial differential equations. For a special class of spacetimes known as Gowdy spacetimes, the number of equations is reduced due to additional structure of two dimensional isometry groups with mutually orthogonal Killing vectors. In this thesis, we focus on a particular model of Gowdy spacetimes known as the polarized T3 model, and provide an explicit solution to Einstein's equations.