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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Searches For Continuous Gravitational Waves From Nine Young Supernova Remnants, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin Nov 2015

Searches For Continuous Gravitational Waves From Nine Young Supernova Remnants, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, Marc Favata, Shaon Ghosh, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

We describe directed searches for continuous gravitational waves (GWs) in data from the sixth Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) science data run. The targets were nine young supernova remnants not associated with pulsars; eight of the remnants are associated with non-pulsing suspected neutron stars. One target's parameters are uncertain enough to warrant two searches, for a total of 10. Each search covered a broad band of frequencies and first and second frequency derivatives for a fixed sky direction. The searches coherently integrated data from the two LIGO interferometers over time spans from 5.3-25.3 days using the matched-filtering -statistic. We found …


Superconducting Antenna Concept For Gravitational Waves, Armen Gulian, J Foreman, Vahan Nikoghosyan, Shmuel Nussinov, Louis Sica, Jeff Tollaksen Jul 2015

Superconducting Antenna Concept For Gravitational Waves, Armen Gulian, J Foreman, Vahan Nikoghosyan, Shmuel Nussinov, Louis Sica, Jeff Tollaksen

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The most advanced contemporary efforts and concepts for registering gravitational waves are focused on measuring tiny deviations in large arm (kilometers in case of LIGO and thousands of kilometers in case of LISA) interferometers via photons. In this report we discuss a concept for the detection of gravitational waves using an antenna comprised of superconducting electrons (Cooper pairs) moving in an ionic lattice. The major challenge in this approach is that the tidal action of the gravitational waves is extremely weak compared with electromagnetic forces. Any motion caused by gravitational waves, which violates charge neutrality, will be impeded by Coulomb …


Double Compact Objects. Iii. Gravitational-Wave Detection Rates, Michal Dominik, Emanuele Berti, Richard O'Shaughnessy, Ilya Mandel, Krzysztof Belczynski, Christopher Fryer, Daniel E. Holz, Tomasz Bulik, Francesco Pannarale Jun 2015

Double Compact Objects. Iii. Gravitational-Wave Detection Rates, Michal Dominik, Emanuele Berti, Richard O'Shaughnessy, Ilya Mandel, Krzysztof Belczynski, Christopher Fryer, Daniel E. Holz, Tomasz Bulik, Francesco Pannarale

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications and Presentations

The unprecedented range of second-generation gravitational-wave (GW) observatories calls for refining the predictions of potential sources and detection rates. The coalescence of double compact objects (DCOs)—i.e., neutron star–neutron star (NS–NS), black hole–neutron star (BH–NS), and black hole–black hole (BH–BH) binary systems—is the most promising source of GWs for these detectors. We compute detection rates of coalescing DCOs in second-generation GW detectors using the latest models for their cosmological evolution, and implementing inspiral-merger-ringdown gravitational waveform models in our signal-to-noise ratio calculations. We find that (1) the inclusion of the merger/ringdown portion of the signal does not significantly affect rates for NS–NS …


Steps Towards A Nonlinear Cauchy-Characteristic Code Patching, Maria Babiuc-Hamilton May 2015

Steps Towards A Nonlinear Cauchy-Characteristic Code Patching, Maria Babiuc-Hamilton

Physics Faculty Research

Cauchy-characteristic extractions (CCE) avoids the errors due to extraction at finite worldtube. The Cauchy and the characteristic approaches have complementary strengths and weaknesses. Unification of the two methods is a promising way of combining the strengths of both formalisms.


Advanced Ligo, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Rodica Martin Apr 2015

Advanced Ligo, J. Aasi, B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, Marc Favata, Rodica Martin

Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The Advanced LIGO gravitational wave detectors are second-generation instruments designed and built for the two LIGO observatories in Hanford, WA and Livingston, LA, USA. The two instruments are identical in design, and are specialized versions of a Michelson interferometer with 4 km long arms. As in Initial LIGO, Fabry-Perot cavities are used in the arms to increase the interaction time with a gravitational wave, and power recycling is used to increase the effective laser power. Signal recycling has been added in Advanced LIGO to improve the frequency response. In the most sensitive frequency region around 100 Hz, the design strain …


Gravitational-Wave Mediated Preheating, Stephon Alexander, Sam Cormack, Antonino Marcianò, Nicolás Yunes Apr 2015

Gravitational-Wave Mediated Preheating, Stephon Alexander, Sam Cormack, Antonino Marcianò, Nicolás Yunes

Dartmouth Scholarship

We propose a new preheating mechanism through the coupling of the gravitational field to both the inflaton and matter fields, without direct inflaton–matter couplings. The inflaton transfers power to the matter fields through interactions with gravitational waves, which are exponentially enhanced due to an inflation–graviton coupling. One such coupling is the product of the inflaton to the Pontryagin density, as in dynamical Chern–Simons gravity. The energy scales involved are constrained by requiring that preheating happens fast during matter domination.


Gravitational & Electromagnetic Waves On The Null Cone, Maria Babiuc-Hamilton Apr 2015

Gravitational & Electromagnetic Waves On The Null Cone, Maria Babiuc-Hamilton

Physics Faculty Research

Bondi (1962) proved mathematically the existence of gravitational waves at null infinity. He found an exact solution of Einstein equations. Within this metric, he calculated the loss of mass due to the emission of gravitational waves. The mas of a system is constant if and only if there is no news. If there is news, the mass decreases as long as there are news.