19,030 research outputs found
Dark matter vs. modifications of the gravitational inverse-square law. Results from planetary motion in the solar system
Dark matter or modifications of the Newtonian inverse-square law in the
solar-system are studied with accurate planetary astrometric data. From
extra-perihelion precession and possible changes in the third Kepler's law, we
get an upper limit on the local dark matter density, rho_{DM} < 3*10^{-16}
kg/m^3 at the 2-sigma confidence level. Variations in the 1/r^2 behavior are
considered in the form of either a possible Yukawa-like interaction or a
modification of gravity of MOND type. Up to scales of 10^{11} m,
scale-dependent deviations in the gravitational acceleration are really small.
We examined the MOND interpolating function mu in the regime of strong gravity.
Gradually varying mu suggested by fits of rotation curves are excluded, whereas
the standard form mu(x)= x/(1+x^2)^{1/2} is still compatible with data. In
combination with constraints from galactic rotation curves and theoretical
considerations on the external field effect, the absence of any significant
deviation from inverse square attraction in the solar system makes the range of
acceptable interpolating functions significantly narrow. Future radio ranging
observations of outer planets with an accuracy of few tenths of a meter could
either give positive evidence of dark matter or disprove modifications of
gravity.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Characteristics of Precession Electron Diffraction Intensities from Dynamical Simulations
Precession Electron Diffraction (PED) offers a number of advantages for
crystal structure analysis and solving unknown structures using electron
diffraction. The current article uses many-beam simulations of PED intensities,
in combination with model structures, to arrive at a better understanding of
how PED differs from standard unprecessed electron diffraction. It is shown
that precession reduces the chaotic oscillatory behavior of electron
diffraction intensities as a function of thickness. An additional
characteristic of PED which is revealed by simulations is reduced sensitivity
to structure factor phases. This is shown to be a general feature of dynami-cal
intensities collected under conditions in which patterns with multiple incident
beam orienta-tions are averaged together. A new and significantly faster method
is demonstrated for dynami-cal calculations of PED intensities, based on using
information contained in off-central columns of the scattering matrix.Comment: 20 pages, 7 Figure
Nutational resonances, transitional precession, and precession-averaged evolution in binary black-hole systems
In the post-Newtonian (PN) regime, the timescale on which the spins of binary
black holes precess is much shorter than the radiation-reaction timescale on
which the black holes inspiral to smaller separations. On the precession
timescale, the angle between the total and orbital angular momenta oscillates
with nutation period , during which the orbital angular momentum
precesses about the total angular momentum by an angle . This defines
two distinct frequencies that vary on the radiation-reaction timescale: the
nutation frequency and the precession frequency
. We use analytic solutions for generic spin
precession at 2PN order to derive Fourier series for the total and orbital
angular momenta in which each term is a sinusoid with frequency for integer . As black holes inspiral, they can pass through
nutational resonances () at which the total angular momentum
tilts. We derive an approximate expression for this tilt angle and show that it
is usually less than radians for nutational resonances at binary
separations . The large tilts occurring during transitional precession
(near zero total angular momentum) are a consequence of such states being
approximate nutational resonances. Our new Fourier series for the total
and orbital angular momenta converge rapidly with providing an intuitive
and computationally efficient approach to understanding generic precession that
may facilitate future calculations of gravitational waveforms in the PN regime.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, version published in PR
Unifying ultrafast demagnetization and intrinsic Gilbert damping in Co/Ni bilayers with electronic relaxation near the Fermi surface
The ability to controllably manipulate the laser-induced ultrafast magnetic
dynamics is a prerequisite for future high speed spintronic devices. The
optimization of devices requires the controllability of the ultrafast
demagnetization time, , and intrinsic Gilbert damping, . In previous attempts
to establish the relationship between and , the rare-earth doping of a
permalloy film with two different demagnetization mechanism is not a suitable
candidate. Here, we choose Co/Ni bilayers to investigate the relations between
and by means of time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (TRMOKE) via
adjusting the thickness of the Ni layers, and obtain an approximately
proportional relation between these two parameters. The remarkable agreement
between TRMOKE experiment and the prediction of breathing Fermi-surface model
confirms that a large Elliott-Yafet spin-mixing parameter is relevant to the
strong spin-orbital coupling at the Co/Ni interface. More importantly, a
proportional relation between and in such metallic films or heterostructures
with electronic relaxation near Fermi surface suggests the local spin-flip
scattering domains the mechanism of ultrafast demagnetization, otherwise the
spin-current mechanism domains. It is an effective method to distinguish the
dominant contributions to ultrafast magnetic quenching in metallic
heterostructures by investigating both the ultrafast demagnetization time and
Gilbert damping simultaneously. Our work can open a novel avenue to manipulate
the magnitude and efficiency of Terahertz emission in metallic heterostructures
such as the perpendicular magnetic anisotropic Ta/Pt/Co/Ni/Pt/Ta multilayers,
and then it has an immediate implication of the design of high frequency
spintronic devices
Final spins from the merger of precessing binary black holes
The inspiral of binary black holes is governed by gravitational radiation
reaction at binary separations r < 1000 M, yet it is too computationally
expensive to begin numerical-relativity simulations with initial separations r
> 10 M. Fortunately, binary evolution between these separations is well
described by post-Newtonian equations of motion. We examine how this
post-Newtonian evolution affects the distribution of spin orientations at
separations r ~ 10 M where numerical-relativity simulations typically begin.
Although isotropic spin distributions at r ~ 1000 M remain isotropic at r ~ 10
M, distributions that are initially partially aligned with the orbital angular
momentum can be significantly distorted during the post-Newtonian inspiral.
Spin precession tends to align (anti-align) the binary black hole spins with
each other if the spin of the more massive black hole is initially partially
aligned (anti-aligned) with the orbital angular momentum, thus increasing
(decreasing) the average final spin. Spin precession is stronger for
comparable-mass binaries, and could produce significant spin alignment before
merger for both supermassive and stellar-mass black hole binaries. We also
point out that precession induces an intrinsic accuracy limitation (< 0.03 in
the dimensionless spin magnitude, < 20 degrees in the direction) in predicting
the final spin resulting from the merger of widely separated binaries.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, new PN terms, submitted to PR
Observable Properties of Orbits in Exact Bumpy Spacetimes
We explore the properties of test-particle orbits in "bumpy" spacetimes -
stationary, reflection-symmetric, asymptotically flat solutions of Einstein
equations that have a non-Kerr (anomalous) higher-order multipole-moment
structure but can be tuned arbitrarily close to the Kerr metric. Future
detectors should observe gravitational waves generated during inspirals of
compact objects into supermassive central bodies. If the central body deviates
from the Kerr metric, this will manifest itself in the emitted waves. Here, we
explore some of the features of orbits in non-Kerr spacetimes that might lead
to observable signatures. As a basis for this analysis, we use a family of
exact solutions proposed by Manko & Novikov which deviate from the Kerr metric
in the quadrupole and higher moments, but we also compare our results to other
work in the literature. We examine isolating integrals of the orbits and find
that the majority of geodesic orbits have an approximate fourth constant of the
motion (in addition to the energy, angular momentum and rest mass) and the
resulting orbits are tri-periodic to high precision. We also find that this
fourth integral can be lost for certain orbits in some oblately deformed
Manko-Novikov spacetimes. However, compact objects will probably not end up on
these chaotic orbits in nature. We compute the location of the innermost stable
circular orbit (ISCO) and find that the behavior of orbtis near the ISCO can be
qualitatively different depending on whether the ISCO is determined by the
onset of an instability in the radial or vertical direction. Finally, we
compute periapsis and orbital-plane precessions for nearly circular and nearly
equatorial orbits in both the strong and weak field, and discuss weak-field
precessions for eccentric equatorial orbits.Comment: 42 pages, 20 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev. D, v2 has minor changes
to make it consistent with published versio
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