Michele's wiki/blog

Authors: Edward K. Porter

Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005

Abstract: We introduce a new template for the detection of gravitational waves from compact binary systems which is based on Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind. As well as having excellent convergence properties, these polynomials are also very closely related to the elusive minimax polynomial. In this study we have limited ourselves to the test-mass regime, where we model a test particle in a circular equatorial orbit around a Schwarzschild black hole. Our objective is to model the numerical gravitational wave flux function, starting with the post-Newtonian expansion from Black Hole Perturbation Theory. We introduce a new Chebyshev approximation to the flux function, which due to a process called Chebyshev economization gives a better model than either post-Newtonian or Pade based methods. A graphical examination of the new flux function shows that it gives an excellent fit to the numerical flux, but more importantly we find that at the last stable orbit the error is reduced, < 1.8%, at all orders of approximation. We also find that the templates constructed using the Chebyshev approximation give better fitting factors, in general > 0.99, and smaller errors, < 1/10%, in the estimation of the Chirp mass when compared to a fiducial exact waveform, constructed using the numerical flux and the exact expression for the orbital energy function, again at all orders of approximation. We also show that in the test-mass case, the new Chebyshev template is superior to both PN and Pade approximant templates, especially at lower orders of approximation.

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Authors: J. A. de Freitas Pacheco, T. Regimbau, S. Vincent, A. Spallicci

Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005

Abstract: The coalescence rate of two neutron stars (NS) is revisited. For estimation of the number of bound NS-NS and the probability of their coalescence in a timescale $\tau$, the galactic star formation history, directly derived from observations, and the evolution of massive stars are considered. The newly established galactic merging rate is $(1.7\pm 1.0) \times 10ˆ{-5} yrˆ{-1}$, while the local merging rate, including the contribution of elliptical galaxies, is about a factor of two higher, $3.4 \times 10ˆ{-5} yrˆ{-1}$. Using the present data basis on galaxy distribution in the local universe and the expected sensitivity of the first generation of laser beam interferometers, we estimate that one event should occur every 125 years for LIGO and one event each 148 years for VIRGO. The situation is considerably improved for advanced-LIGO since we predict that 6 events per year should be detected whereas for a recently proposed VIRGO new configuration, the event rate might increase up to 3 events every two years.

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Authors: Marc Favata (Cornell)

Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005

Abstract: Numerical simulations of binary neutron stars by Wilson, Mathews, and Marronetti indicated that neutron stars that are stable in isolation can be made to collapse to black holes when placed in a binary. This claim was surprising as it ran counter to the Newtonian expectation that a neutron star in a binary should be more stable, not less. After correcting an error found by Flanagan, Wilson and Mathews found that the compression of the neutron stars was significantly reduced but not eliminated. This has motivated us to ask the following general question: Under what circumstances can general relativistic tidal interactions cause an otherwise stable neutron star to be compressed? We have found that if a non-rotating neutron star possesses a current quadrupole moment, interactions with a gravitomagnetic tidal field can lead to a compressive force on the star. If this current quadrupole is induced by the gravitomagnetic tidal field, it is related to the tidal field by an equation-of-state-dependent constant called the gravitomagnetic Love number. This is analogous to the Newtonian Love number that relates the strength of a Newtonian tidal field to the induced mass quadrupole moment of a star. The compressive force is almost never larger than the Newtonian tidal interaction that stabilizes the neutron star against collapse. In the case in which a current quadrupole is already present in the star (perhaps as an artifact of a numerical simulation), the compressive force can exceed the stabilizing one, leading to a net increase in the central density of the star. This increase is small (<~1%) but could, in principle, cause gravitational collapse in a star that is close to its maximum mass.

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Authors: Zoltán Keresztes, Balázs Mikóczi, László Á. Gergely

Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005

Abstract: Compact binaries consisting of neutron stars / black holes on eccentric orbit undergo a perturbed Keplerian motion. The perturbations are either of relativistic origin or are related to the spin, mass quadrupole and magnetic dipole moments of the binary components. The post-Newtonian motion of such systems decouples into radial and angular parts. We present here for the first time the radial motion of such a binary encoded in a generalized Kepler equation, with the inclusion of all above-mentioned contributions, up to linear order in the perturbations. Together with suitably introduced parametrizations, the radial motion is solved completely.

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Authors: Stefan W. Ballmer

Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005

Abstract: The LIGO Scientific Collaboration recently reported a new upper limit on an isotropic stochastic background of gravitational waves obtained based on the data from the 3rd LIGO science Run (S3). Now I present a new method for obtaining directional upper limits that the LIGO Scientific Collaboration intends to use for future LIGO science runs and that essentially implements a gravitational wave radiometer.

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Authors: Clifford M. Will

Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005

Abstract: The status of experimental tests of general relativity and of theoretical frameworks for analysing them is reviewed. Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP) is well supported by experiments such as the Eotvos experiment, tests of special relativity, and the gravitational redshift experiment. Future tests of EEP and of the inverse square law are searching for new interactions arising from unification or quantum gravity. Tests of general relativity at the post-Newtonian level have reached high precision, including the light deflection, the Shapiro time delay, the perihelion advance of Mercury, and the Nordtvedt effect in lunar motion. Gravitational-wave damping has been detected in an amount that agrees with general relativity to better than half a percent using the Hulse-Taylor binary pulsar, and other binary pulsar systems have yielded other tests, especially of strong-field effects. When direct observation of gravitational radiation from astrophysical sources begins, new tests of general relativity will be possible.

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Authors: Marc-Thierry Jaekel, Serge Reynaud

Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005

Abstract: Einstein gravitation theory can be extended by preserving its geometrical nature but changing the relation between curvature and energy-momentum tensors. This change accounts for radiative corrections, replacing the Newton gravitation constant by two running couplings which depend on scale and differ in the two sectors of traceless and traced tensors. The metric and curvature tensors in the field of the Sun, which were obtained in previous papers within a linearized approximation, are then calculated without this restriction. Modifications of gravitational effects on geodesics are then studied, allowing one to explore phenomenological consequences of extensions lying in the vicinity of general relativity. Some of these extended theories are able to account for the Pioneer anomaly while remaining compatible with tests involving the motion of planets. The PPN Ansatz corresponds to peculiar extensions of general relativity which do not have the ability to meet this compatibility challenge.

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Authors: Naoki Seto

Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005

Abstract: We discuss prospects for direct measurement of stochastic gravitational wave background around 0.1-1Hz with future space missions. It is assumed to use correlation analysis technique with the optimal TDI variables for two sets of LISA-type interferometers. The signal to noise for detection of the background and the parameter estimation errors for its spectrum are evaluated for proposed missions.

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Authors: Kostas Glampedakis, Stanislav Babak

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005

Abstract: The future LISA detector will constitute the prime instrument for high-precision gravitational wave observations.LISA is expected to provide information for the properties of spacetime in the vicinity of massive black holes which reside in galactic nuclei.Such black holes can capture stellar-mass compact objects, which afterwards slowly inspiral,radiating gravitational waves.The body's orbital motion and the associated waveform carry information about the spacetime metric of the massive black hole,and it is possible to extract this information and experimentally identify (or not!) a Kerr black hole.In this paper we lay the foundations for a practical ‘spacetime-mapping’ framework. Our work is based on the assumption that the massive body is not necessarily a Kerr black hole, and that the vacuum exterior spacetime is stationary axisymmetric,described by a metric which deviates slightly from the Kerr metric. We first provide a simple recipe for building such a ‘quasi-Kerr’ metric by adding to the Kerr metric the deviation in the value of the quadrupole moment. We then study geodesic motion in this metric,focusing on equatorial orbits. We proceed by computing ‘kludge’ waveforms which we compare with their Kerr counterparts. We find that a modest deviation from the Kerr metric is sufficient for producing a significant mismatch between the waveforms, provided we fix the orbital parameters. This result suggests that an attempt to use Kerr waveform templates for studying EMRIs around a non-Kerr object might result in serious loss of signal-to-noise ratio and total number of detected events. The waveform comparisons also unveil a ‘confusion’ problem, that is the possibility of matching a true non-Kerr waveform with a Kerr template of different orbital parameters.

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Authors: Jorge Pullin (editor)

Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005

Abstract: GGR News:
The WYP speakers program, by Richard Price
We hear that…, by Jorge Pullin
100 Years ago, by Jorge Pullin
Research Briefs:
What's new in LIGO, by David Shoemaker
Recent developments in the information loss paradox, by Eanna Flanagan
Gravity Probe B mission ends, by Bob Kahn
Conference reports:
6th Edoardo Amaldi Meeting, by Matthew Benacquista
Workshop on Numerical Relativity, BIRS, by Carsten Gundlach
8th Capra Meeting on Radiation Reaction, by Leor Barack
Theory and experiment in quantum gravity, by Elizabeth Winstanley

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Authors: M. Coleman Miller (Univ. of Maryland), Marc Freitag (Northwestern), Douglas P. Hamilton (Univ. of Maryland), Vanessa M. Lauburg (Univ. of Maryland)

Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005

Abstract: Current simulations of the rate at which stellar-mass compact objects merge with supermassive black holes (called extreme mass ratio inspirals, or EMRIs) focus on two-body capture by emission of gravitational radiation. The gravitational wave signal of such events will likely involve a significant eccentricity in the sensitivity range of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). We show that tidal separation of stellar-mass compact object binaries by supermassive black holes will instead produce events whose eccentricity is nearly zero in the LISA band. Compared to two-body capture events, tidal separations have a high cross section and result in orbits that have a large pericenter and small apocenter. Therefore, the rate of interactions per binary is high and the resulting systems are very unlikely to be perturbed by other stars into nearly radial plunges. Depending on the fraction of compact objects that are in binaries within a few parsecs of the center, the rate of low-eccentricity LISA events could be comparable to or larger than the rate of high-eccentricity events.

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