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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Search For Subsolar-Mass Ultracompact Binaries In Advanced Ligo's First Observing Run, B. P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Dec 2018

Search For Subsolar-Mass Ultracompact Binaries In Advanced Ligo's First Observing Run, B. P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present the first Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo search for ultracompact binary systems with component masses between 0.2 M-1.0 M using data taken between September 12, 2015 and January 19, 2016. We find no viable gravitational wave candidates. Our null result constrains the coalescence rate of monochromatic (delta function) distributions of nonspinning (0.2 M, 0.2 M) ultracompact binaries to be less than 1.0 x 106 Gpc-3 yr-1 and the coalescence rate of a similar distribution of (1.0 M, 1.0 M) ultracompact binaries to be less …


Gw170817: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Compact Binary Coalescences, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Feb 2018

Gw170817: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Compact Binary Coalescences, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The LIGO Scientific and Virgo Collaborations have announced the event GW170817, the first detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of two neutron stars. The merger rate of binary neutron stars estimated from this event suggests that distant, unresolvable binary neutron stars create a significant astrophysical stochastic gravitational-wave background. The binary neutron star component will add to the contribution from binary black holes, increasing the amplitude of the total astrophysical background relative to previous expectations. In the Advanced LIGO-Virgo frequency band most sensitive to stochastic backgrounds (near 25 Hz), we predict a total astrophysical background with amplitude ΩGW( …


Gw170817: Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Neutron Star Inspiral, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Oct 2017

Gw170817: Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Neutron Star Inspiral, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

On August 17, 2017 at 12-41:04 UTC the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors made their first observation of a binary neutron star inspiral. The signal, GW170817, was detected with a combined signal-to-noise ratio of 32.4 and a false-alarm-rate estimate of less than one per 8.0 x 104 years. We infer the component masses of the binary to be between 0.86 and 2.26 M, in agreement with masses of known neutron stars. Restricting the component spins to the range inferred in binary neutron stars, we find the component masses to be in the range 1.17-1.60 M …


Gw170814: A Three-Detector Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Black Hole Coalescence, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Oct 2017

Gw170814: A Three-Detector Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Black Hole Coalescence, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

On August 14, 2017 at 10 30:43 UTC, the Advanced Virgo detector and the two Advanced LIGO detectors coherently observed a transient gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar mass black holes, with a false-alarm rate of ≲1 in 27 000 years. The signal was observed with a three-detector network matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 18. The inferred masses of the initial black holes are 30.5-3.0+5.7M⊙ and 25.3-4.2+2.8M⊙ (at the 90% credible level). The luminosity distance of the source is 540-210+130 Mpc, corresponding to a redshift of z=0.11-0.04+0.03 …


Aeromagnetic, Gravity, And Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Analyses Reveal The Causative Fault Of The 3 April 2017 MW 6.5 Moiyabana, Botswana, Earthquake, Folarin Kolawole, Estella A. Atekwana, S. Malloy, Dorothy Sarah Stamps, Raphael Grandin, Mohamed G. Abdel Salam, Khumo Leseane, Elisha M. Shemang Sep 2017

Aeromagnetic, Gravity, And Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar Analyses Reveal The Causative Fault Of The 3 April 2017 MW 6.5 Moiyabana, Botswana, Earthquake, Folarin Kolawole, Estella A. Atekwana, S. Malloy, Dorothy Sarah Stamps, Raphael Grandin, Mohamed G. Abdel Salam, Khumo Leseane, Elisha M. Shemang

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

On 3 April 2017, a Mw 6.5 earthquake struck Moiyabana, Botswana, nucleating at >20 km focal depth within the Paleoproterozoic Limpopo-Shashe orogenic belt separating the Archean Zimbabwe and Kaapvaal Cratons. We investigate the lithospheric structures associated with this earthquake using high-resolution aeromagnetic and gravity data integrated with Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) analysis. Here we present the first results that provide insights into the tectonic framework of the earthquake. The ruptured fault trace delineated by DInSAR aligns with a distinct NW striking and NE dipping magnetic lineament within the Precambrian basement. The fault plane solution and numerical modeling …


Gw170104: Observation Of A 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence At Redshift 0.2, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Jun 2017

Gw170104: Observation Of A 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence At Redshift 0.2, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We describe the observation of GW170104, a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of a pair of stellar-mass black holes. The signal was measured on January 4, 2017 at 10 11:58.6 UTC by the twin advanced detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory during their second observing run, with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a false alarm rate less than 1 in 70 000 years. The inferred component black hole masses are 31.2-6.0+8.4M⊙ and 19.4-5.9+5.3M⊙ (at the 90% credible level). The black hole spins are best constrained through measurement of the effective …


Upper Limits On The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Advanced Ligo's First Observing Run, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Mar 2017

Upper Limits On The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Advanced Ligo's First Observing Run, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

A wide variety of astrophysical and cosmological sources are expected to contribute to a stochastic gravitational-wave background. Following the observations of GW150914 and GW151226, the rate and mass of coalescing binary black holes appear to be greater than many previous expectations. As a result, the stochastic background from unresolved compact binary coalescences is expected to be particularly loud. We perform a search for the isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background using data from Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory's (aLIGO) first observing run. The data display no evidence of a stochastic gravitational-wave signal. We constrain the dimensionless energy density of gravitational waves …


Improved Analysis Of Gw150914 Using A Fully Spin-Precessing Waveform Model, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Oct 2016

Improved Analysis Of Gw150914 Using A Fully Spin-Precessing Waveform Model, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

This paper presents updated estimates of source parameters for GW150914, a binary black-hole coalescence event detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in 2015 [Abbott et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016).]. Abbott et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 241102 (2016).] presented parameter estimation of the source using a 13-dimensional, phenomenological precessing-spin model (precessing IMRPhenom) and an 11-dimensional nonprecessing effective-one body (EOB) model calibrated to numerical-relativity simulations, which forces spin alignment (nonprecessing EOBNR). Here, we present new results that include a 15-dimensional precessing-spin waveform model (precessing EOBNR) developed within the EOB formalism. We find good agreement …


Binary Black Hole Mergers In The First Advanced Ligo Observing Run, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Oct 2016

Binary Black Hole Mergers In The First Advanced Ligo Observing Run, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The first observational run of the Advanced LIGO detectors, from September 12, 2015 to January 19, 2016, saw the first detections of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers. In this paper, we present full results from a search for binary black hole merger signals with total masses up to 100M and detailed implications from our observations of these systems. Our search, based on general-relativistic models of gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole systems, unambiguously identified two signals, GW150914 and GW151226, with a significance of greater than 5σ over the observing period. It also identified a third possible signal, …


Gw151226: Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Jun 2016

Gw151226: Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We report the observation of a gravitational-wave signal produced by the coalescence of two stellar-mass black holes. The signal, GW151226, was observed by the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) on December 26, 2015 at 03:38:53 UTC. The signal was initially identified within 70 s by an online matched-filter search targeting binary coalescences. Subsequent off-line analyses recovered GW151226 with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 13 and a significance greater than 5σ. The signal persisted in the LIGO frequency band for approximately 1 s, increasing in frequency and amplitude over about 55 cycles from 35 to 450 Hz, …


Properties Of The Binary Black Hole Merger Gw150914, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Jun 2016

Properties Of The Binary Black Hole Merger Gw150914, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

On September 14, 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detected a gravitational-wave transient (GW150914); we characterize the properties of the source and its parameters. The data around the time of the event were analyzed coherently across the LIGO network using a suite of accurate waveform models that describe gravitational waves from a compact binary system in general relativity. GW150914 was produced by a nearly equal mass binary black hole of masses 36-4+5 M and 29-4+4M; for each parameter we report the median value and the range of the 90% credible interval. …


Tests Of General Relativity With Gw150914, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. May 2016

Tests Of General Relativity With Gw150914, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The LIGO detection of GW150914 provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the two-body motion of a compact-object binary in the large-velocity, highly nonlinear regime, and to witness the final merger of the binary and the excitation of uniquely relativistic modes of the gravitational field. We carry out several investigations to determine whether GW150914 is consistent with a binary black-hole merger in general relativity. We find that the final remnant's mass and spin, as determined from the low-frequency (inspiral) and high-frequency (postinspiral) phases of the signal, are mutually consistent with the binary black-hole solution in general relativity. Furthermore, the data following …


Dirac Hamiltonian And Reissner-Nordström Metric: Coulomb Interaction In Curved Space-Time, J. H. Noble, Ulrich D. Jentschura Mar 2016

Dirac Hamiltonian And Reissner-Nordström Metric: Coulomb Interaction In Curved Space-Time, J. H. Noble, Ulrich D. Jentschura

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We investigate the spin-1/2 relativistic quantum dynamics in the curved space-time generated by a central massive charged object (black hole). This necessitates a study of the coupling of a Dirac particle to the Reissner-Nordström space-time geometry and the simultaneous covariant coupling to the central electrostatic field. The relativistic Dirac Hamiltonian for the Reissner-Nordström geometry is derived. A Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation reveals the presence of gravitational and electrogravitational spin-orbit coupling terms which generalize the Fokker precession terms found for the Dirac-Schwarzschild Hamiltonian, and other electrogravitational correction terms to the potential proportional to αnG, where α is the fine-structure constant and …


Gw150914: The Advanced Ligo Detectors In The Era Of First Discoveries, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Mar 2016

Gw150914: The Advanced Ligo Detectors In The Era Of First Discoveries, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Following a major upgrade, the two advanced detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) held their first observation run between September 2015 and January 2016. With a strain sensitivity of 10-23√/Hz at 100 Hz, the product of observable volume and measurement time exceeded that of all previous runs within the first 16 days of coincident observation. On September 14, 2015, the Advanced LIGO detectors observed a transient gravitational-wave signal determined to be the coalescence of two black holes [B. P. Abbott et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 061102 (2016)], launching the era of gravitational-wave astronomy. The …


Gw150914: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Binary Black Holes, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Mar 2016

Gw150914: Implications For The Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background From Binary Black Holes, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The LIGO detection of the gravitational wave transient GW150914, from the inspiral and merger of two black holes with masses ≳30M, suggests a population of binary black holes with relatively high mass. This observation implies that the stochastic gravitational-wave background from binary black holes, created from the incoherent superposition of all the merging binaries in the Universe, could be higher than previously expected. Using the properties of GW150914, we estimate the energy density of such a background from binary black holes. In the most sensitive part of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo band for stochastic backgrounds (near …


Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Black Hole Merger, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Feb 2016

Observation Of Gravitational Waves From A Binary Black Hole Merger, Benjamin P. Abbott, Marco Cavaglia, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0x10-21. It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203 000 years, equivalent to a …


Gravitational Correction To Vacuum Polarization, Ulrich D. Jentschura Feb 2015

Gravitational Correction To Vacuum Polarization, Ulrich D. Jentschura

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We consider the gravitational correction to (electronic) vacuum polarization in the presence of a gravitational background field. The Dirac propagators for the virtual fermions are modified to include the leading gravitational correction (potential term) which corresponds to a coordinate-dependent fermion mass. The mass term is assumed to be uniform over a length scale commensurate with the virtual electron-positron pair. The on-mass shell renormalization condition ensures that the gravitational correction vanishes on the mass shell of the photon, i.e., the speed of light is unaffected by the quantum field theoretical loop correction, in full agreement with the equivalence principle. Nontrivial corrections …


Fine-Structure Constant For Gravitational And Scalar Interactions, Ulrich D. Jentschura Aug 2014

Fine-Structure Constant For Gravitational And Scalar Interactions, Ulrich D. Jentschura

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Starting from the coupling of a relativistic quantum particle to the curved Schwarzschild space time, we show that the Dirac-Schwarzschild problem has bound states and calculate their energies including relativistic corrections. Relativistic effects are shown to be suppressed by the gravitational fine-structure constant αG=Gm1m2/(ℏc), where G is Newton's gravitational constant, c is the speed of light, and m1 and m2 ≫ m1 are the masses of the two particles. The kinetic corrections due to space-time curvature are shown to lift the familiar (n,j) degeneracy of the energy levels of …


The Clustering Of Galaxies In The Sdss-Iii Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Testing Gravity With Redshift Space Distortions Using The Power Spectrum Multipoles, Florian Beutler, Shun Saito, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website. Apr 2014

The Clustering Of Galaxies In The Sdss-Iii Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Testing Gravity With Redshift Space Distortions Using The Power Spectrum Multipoles, Florian Beutler, Shun Saito, For Full List Of Authors, See Publisher's Website.

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We analyse the anisotropic clustering of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) CMASS Data Release 11 (DR11) sample, which consists of 690 827 galaxies in the redshift range 0.43 < z < 0.7 and has a sky coverage of 8498 deg2. We perform our analysis in Fourier space using a power spectrum estimator suggested by Yamamoto et al. We measure the multipole power spectra in a self-consistent manner for the first time in the sense that we provide a proper way to treat the survey window function and the integral constraint, without the commonly used assumption of an isotropic power spectrum and without the need to split the survey into …


Nonrelativistic Limit Of The Dirac-Schwarzschild Hamiltonian: Gravitational Zitterbewegung And Gravitational Spin-Orbit Coupling, Ulrich D. Jentschura, J. H. Noble Aug 2013

Nonrelativistic Limit Of The Dirac-Schwarzschild Hamiltonian: Gravitational Zitterbewegung And Gravitational Spin-Orbit Coupling, Ulrich D. Jentschura, J. H. Noble

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We investigate the nonrelativistic limit of the gravitationally coupled Dirac equation via a Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation. The relativistic correction terms have immediate and obvious physical interpretations in terms of a gravitational Zitterbewegung and a gravitational spin-orbit coupling. We find no direct coupling of the spin vector to the gravitational force, which would otherwise violate parity. The particle-antiparticle symmetry described recently by one of us is verified on the level of the perturbative corrections accessed by the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation. The gravitational corrections to the electromagnetic transition current are calculated.


Ergoregion Instability Of Black Hole Mimickers, Paolo Pani, Vitor Cardoso, Mariano Cadoni, Marco Cavaglia Aug 2008

Ergoregion Instability Of Black Hole Mimickers, Paolo Pani, Vitor Cardoso, Mariano Cadoni, Marco Cavaglia

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ultra-compact, horizonless objects such as gravastars, boson stars, wormholes and superspinars can mimick most of the properties of black holes. Here we show that these "black hole mimickers" will most likely develop a strong ergoregion instability when rapidly spinning. Instability timescales range between ∼ 10-5s and ∼ weeks depending on the object, its mass and its angular momentum. For a wide range of parameters the instability is truly effective. This provides a strong indication that astrophysical ultra-compact objects with large rotation are black holes.


Electron Self-Energy In The Presence Of A Magnetic Field: Hyperfine Splitting And G Factor, Vladimir A. Yerokhin, Ulrich D. Jentschura Apr 2008

Electron Self-Energy In The Presence Of A Magnetic Field: Hyperfine Splitting And G Factor, Vladimir A. Yerokhin, Ulrich D. Jentschura

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

A high-precision numerical calculation is reported for the self-energy correction to the hyperfine splitting and to the bound-electron g factor in hydrogenlike ions with low nuclear charge numbers. The binding nuclear Coulomb field is treated to all orders, and the nonperturbative remainder beyond the known Zα-expansion coefficients is determined. For the 3He+ ion, the nonperturbative remainder yields a contribution of -450Hz to the normalized difference of the 1S and 2S hyperfine-structure intervals, to be compared with the experimental uncertainty of 71 Hz and with the theoretical error of 50 Hz due to other contributions. In the case of …