772 research outputs found
The basic physics of the binary black hole merger GW150914
The first direct gravitational-wave detection was made by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory on September 14, 2015. The GW150914 signal was strong enough to be apparent, without using any waveform model, in the filtered detector strain data. Here, features of the signal visible in the data are analyzed using concepts from Newtonian physics and general relativity, accessible to anyone with a general physics background. The simple analysis presented here is consistent with the fully general-relativistic analyses published elsewhere, in showing that the signal was produced by the inspiral and subsequent merger of two black holes. The black holes were each of approximately 35 Mʘ, still orbited each other as close as ∼350 km apart and subsequently merged to form a single black hole. Similar reasoning, directly from the data, is used to roughly estimate how far these black holes were from the Earth, and the energy that they radiated in gravitational waves
Supplement : "The rate of binary black hole mergers inferred from advanced LIGO observations surrounding GW150914" (2016, ApJL, 833, L1)
This article provides supplemental information for a Letter reporting the rate of (BBH) coalescences inferred from 16 days of coincident Advanced LIGO observations surrounding the transient (GW) signal GW150914. In that work we reported various rate estimates whose 90% confidence intervals fell in the range 2-600 Gpc-3yr-1. Here we give details on our method and computations, including information about our search pipelines, a derivation of our likelihood function for the analysis, a description of the astrophysical search trigger distribution expected from merging BBHs, details on our computational methods, a description of the effects and our model for calibration uncertainty, and an analytic method for estimating our detector sensitivity, which is calibrated to our measurements
Observation of a kilogram-scale oscillator near its quantum ground state
We introduce a novel cooling technique capable of approaching the quantum ground state of a kilogram-scale system-an interferometric gravitational wave detector. The detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) operate within a factor of 10 of the standard quantum limit (SQL), providing a displacement sensitivity of 10−18 m in a 100 Hz band centered on 150 Hz. With a new feedback strategy, we dynamically shift the resonant frequency of a 2.7 kg pendulum mode to lie within this optimal band, where its effective temperature falls as low as 1.4 μK, and its occupation number reaches about 200 quanta. This work shows how the exquisite sensitivity necessary to detect gravitational waves can be made available to probe the validity of quantum mechanics on an enormous mass scale
Einstein@Home search for periodic gravitational waves in LIGO S4 data
A search for periodic gravitational waves, from sources such as isolated rapidly spinning neutron stars, was carried out using 510 h of data from the fourth LIGO science run (S4). The search was for quasimonochromatic waves in the frequency range from 50 to 1500 Hz, with a linear frequency drift f˙ (measured at the solar system barycenter) in the range -f/τ<f˙<0.1f/τ, where the minimum spin-down age τ was 1000 yr for signals below 300 Hz and 10 000 yr above 300 Hz. The main computational work of the search was distributed over approximately 100 000 computers volunteered by the general public. This large computing power allowed the use of a relatively long coherent integration time of 30 h, despite the large parameter space searched. No statistically significant signals were found. The sensitivity of the search is estimated, along with the fraction of parameter space that was vetoed because of contamination by instrumental artifacts. In the 100 to 200 Hz band, more than 90% of sources with dimensionless gravitational-wave strain amplitude greater than 10-23 would have been detected
Dynamical model of sequential spatial memory: winnerless competition of patterns
We introduce a new biologically-motivated model of sequential spatial memory
which is based on the principle of winnerless competition (WLC). We implement
this mechanism in a two-layer neural network structure and present the learning
dynamics which leads to the formation of a WLC network. After learning, the
system is capable of associative retrieval of pre-recorded sequences of spatial
patterns.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR
Effects of waveform model systematics on the interpretation of GW150914
Parameter estimates of GW150914 were obtained using Bayesian inference, based on three semi-analytic waveform models for binary black hole coalescences. These waveform models differ from each other in their treatment of black hole spins, and all three models make some simplifying assumptions, notably to neglect sub-dominant waveform harmonic modes and orbital eccentricity. Furthermore, while the models are calibrated to agree with waveforms obtained by full numerical solutions of Einstein's equations, any such calibration is accurate only to some non-zero tolerance and is limited by the accuracy of the underlying phenomenology, availability, quality, and parameter-space coverage of numerical simulations. This paper complements the original analyses of GW150914 with an investigation of the effects of possible systematic errors in the waveform models on estimates of its source parameters. To test for systematic errors we repeat the original Bayesian analysis on mock signals from numerical simulations of a series of binary configurations with parameters similar to those found for GW150914. Overall, we find no evidence for a systematic bias relative to the statistical error of the original parameter recovery of GW150914 due to modeling approximations or modeling inaccuracies. However, parameter biases are found to occur for some configurations disfavored by the data of GW150914: for binaries inclined edge-on to the detector over a small range of choices of polarization angles, and also for eccentricities greater than ∼0.05. For signals with higher signal-to-noise ratio than GW150914, or in other regions of the binary parameter space (lower masses, larger mass ratios, or higher spins), we expect that systematic errors in current waveform models may impact gravitational-wave measurements, making more accurate models desirable for future observations. © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd
A Categorical Semantics for Inductive-Inductive Definitions
Induction-induction is a principle for defining data types in Martin-Löf Type Theory. An inductive-inductive definition consists of a set A, together with an A-indexed family B : A → Set, where both A and B are inductively defined in such a way that the constructors for A can refer to B and vice versa. In addition, the constructors for B can refer to the constructors for A. We extend the usual initial algebra semantics for ordinary inductive data types to the inductive-inductive setting by considering dialgebras instead of ordinary algebras. This gives a new and compact formalisation of inductive-inductive definitions, which we prove is equivalent to the usual formulation with elimination rules
Event Shape/Energy Flow Correlations
We introduce a set of correlations between energy flow and event shapes that
are sensitive to the flow of color at short distances in jet events. These
correlations are formulated for a general set of event shapes, which includes
jet broadening and thrust as special cases. We illustrate the method for
electron-positron annihilation dijet events, and calculate the correlation at
leading logarithm in the energy flow and at next-to-leading-logarithm in the
event shape.Comment: 43 pages, eight eps figures; minor changes, references adde
Discrete symmetries, invisible axion and lepton number symmetry in an economic 3-3-1 model
We show that Peccei-Quinn and lepton number symmetries can be a natural
outcome in a 3-3-1 model with right-handed neutrinos after imposing a Z_11 x
Z_2 symmetry. This symmetry is suitably accommodated in this model when we
augmented its spectrum by including merely one singlet scalar field. We work
out the breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, yielding the axion, and study
the phenomenological consequences. The main result of this work is that the
solution to the strong CP problem can be implemented in a natural way, implying
an invisible axion phenomenologically unconstrained, free of domain wall
formation and constituting a good candidate for the cold dark matter.Comment: 17 pages, Revtex
Family Unification from Universality
A direct consequence of the occurrence of fermion families is the invariance
of currents under certain groups of (universality) transformations. We show how
these universality groups can themselves be used to find and study grand family
unification models. Identifying two independent - weak and strong -
universality groups and assuming that the grand unification group is SU(8N),
its subgroup respecting either weak or strong universality is shown to be G =
SU(2)xU(1)xSU(3). The fundamental representation of SU(8N) decomposes as N
families of leptons and quarks. In the G-invariant limit, all fermions are
left-handed. A mechanism for generating the correct number of right-handed
fermions with the correct couplings so as to give pure vector colour and
electromagnetic currents is exhibited. Universality is shown to result most
naturally from a preonic structure of fermions. In such a preonic picture there
are no ultraheavy gauge bosons and no anomaly or hierarchy problem.Comment: 30 page
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