6,958 research outputs found
Performance of the Colorado wind-profiling network, part 1.5A
The Wave Propagation Laboratory (WPL) has operated a network of radar wind Profilers in Colorado for about 1 year. The network consists of four VHF (50-MHz) radars and a UHF (915-MHz) radar. The Platteville VHF radar was developed by the Aeronomy Laboratory (AL) and has been operated jointly by WPL and AL for several years. The other radars were installed between February and May 1983. Experiences with these radars and some general aspects of tropospheric wind measurements with Doppler radar are discussed
Gravitational waves from galaxy encounters
We discuss the emission of gravitational radiation produced in encounters of
dark matter galactic halos. To this aim we perform a number of numerical
simulations of typical galaxy mergers, computing the associated gravitational
radiation waveforms as well as the energy released in the processes. Our
simulations yield dimensionless gravitational wave amplitudes of the order of
and gravitational wave frequencies of the order of Hz,
when the galaxies are located at a distance of 10 Mpc. These values are of the
same order as those arising in the gravitational radiation originated by strong
variations of the gravitational field in the early Universe, and therefore,
such gravitational waves cannot be directly observed by ground-based detectors.
We discuss the feasibility of an indirect detection by means of the B-mode
polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) induced by such waves.
Our results show that the gravitational waves from encounters of dark matter
galactic halos leave much too small an imprint on the CMB polarization to be
actually observed with ongoing and future missions.Comment: 9 pages with revtex style, 3 ps figures; to be published in Physical
Review
"Kludge" gravitational waveforms for a test-body orbiting a Kerr black hole
One of the most exciting potential sources of gravitational waves for
low-frequency, space-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors such as the
proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is the inspiral of compact
objects into massive black holes in the centers of galaxies. The detection of
waves from such "extreme mass ratio inspiral" systems (EMRIs) and extraction of
information from those waves require template waveforms. The systems' extreme
mass ratio means that their waveforms can be determined accurately using black
hole perturbation theory. Such calculations are computationally very expensive.
There is a pressing need for families of approximate waveforms that may be
generated cheaply and quickly but which still capture the main features of true
waveforms. In this paper, we introduce a family of such "kludge" waveforms and
describe ways to generate them. We assess performance of the introduced
approximations by comparing "kludge" waveforms to accurate waveforms obtained
by solving the Teukolsky equation in the adiabatic limit (neglecting GW
backreaction). We find that the kludge waveforms do extremely well at
approximating the true gravitational waveform, having overlaps with the
Teukolsky waveforms of 95% or higher over most of the parameter space for which
comparisons can currently be made. Indeed, we find these kludges to be of such
high quality (despite their ease of calculation) that it is possible they may
play some role in the final search of LISA data for EMRIs.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures, requires subeqnarray; v2 contains minor changes
for consistency with published versio
Thermal and Dynamical Equilibrium in Two-Component Star Clusters
We present the results of Monte Carlo simulations for the dynamical evolution
of star clusters containing two stellar populations with individual masses m1
and m2 > m1, and total masses M1 and M2 < M1. We use both King and Plummer
model initial conditions and we perform simulations for a wide range of
individual and total mass ratios, m2/m1 and M2/M1. We ignore the effects of
binaries, stellar evolution, and the galactic tidal field. The simulations use
N = 10^5 stars and follow the evolution of the clusters until core collapse. We
find that the departure from energy equipartition in the core follows
approximately the theoretical predictions of Spitzer (1969) and Lightman & Fall
(1978), and we suggest a more exact condition that is based on our results. We
find good agreement with previous results obtained by other methods regarding
several important features of the evolution, including the pre-collapse
distribution of heavier stars, the time scale on which equipartition is
approached, and the extent to which core collapse is accelerated by a small
subpopulation of heavier stars. We briefly discuss the possible implications of
our results for the dynamical evolution of primordial black holes and neutron
stars in globular clusters.Comment: 31 pages, including 13 figures, to appear in Ap
A Compact Supermassive Binary Black Hole System
We report on the discovery of a supermassive binary black hole system in the
radio galaxy 0402+379, with a projected separation between the two black holes
of just 7.3 pc. This is the closest black hole pair yet found by more than two
orders of magnitude. These results are based upon recent multi-frequency
observations using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) which reveal two
compact, variable, flat-spectrum, active nuclei within the elliptical host
galaxy of 0402+379. Multi-epoch observations from the VLBA also provide
constraints on the total mass and dynamics of the system. Low spectral
resolution spectroscopy using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope indicates two velocity
systems with a combined mass of the two black holes of ~1.5 x 10^8 solar
masses. The two nuclei appear stationary while the jets emanating from the
weaker of the two nuclei appear to move out and terminate in bright hot spots.
The discovery of this system has implications for the number of close binary
black holes that might be sources of gravitational radiation. Green Bank
Telescope observations at 22 GHz to search for water masers in this interesting
system are also presented.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures, Accepted to The Astrophysical Journa
Crew Exploration Vehicle Service Module Ascent Abort Coverage
The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) is required to maintain continuous abort capability from lift off through destination arrival. This requirement is driven by the desire to provide the capability to safely return the crew to Earth after failure scenarios during the various phases of the mission. This paper addresses abort trajectory design considerations, concept of operations and guidance algorithm prototypes for the portion of the ascent trajectory following nominal jettison of the Launch Abort System (LAS) until safe orbit insertion. Factors such as abort system performance, crew load limits, natural environments, crew recovery, and vehicle element disposal were investigated to determine how to achieve continuous vehicle abort capability
Gravitational-wave memory revisited: memory from the merger and recoil of binary black holes
Gravitational-wave memory refers to the permanent displacement of the test
masses in an idealized (freely-falling) gravitational-wave interferometer.
Inspiraling binaries produce a particularly interesting form of memory--the
Christodoulou memory. Although it originates from nonlinear interactions at 2.5
post-Newtonian order, the Christodoulou memory affects the gravitational-wave
amplitude at leading (Newtonian) order. Previous calculations have computed
this non-oscillatory amplitude correction during the inspiral phase of binary
coalescence. Using an "effective-one-body" description calibrated with the
results of numerical relativity simulations, the evolution of the memory during
the inspiral, merger, and ringdown phases, as well as the memory's final
saturation value, are calculated. Using this model for the memory, the
prospects for its detection are examined, particularly for supermassive black
hole binary coalescences that LISA will detect with high signal-to-noise
ratios. Coalescing binary black holes also experience center-of-mass recoil due
to the anisotropic emission of gravitational radiation. These recoils can
manifest themselves in the gravitational-wave signal in the form of a "linear"
memory and a Doppler shift of the quasi-normal-mode frequencies. The prospects
for observing these effects are also discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; accepted to the proceedings of the 7th
International LISA Symposium; v2: updated figures and signal-to-noise ratios,
several minor changes to the tex
Perturbations of slowly rotating black holes: massive vector fields in the Kerr metric
We discuss a general method to study linear perturbations of slowly rotating
black holes which is valid for any perturbation field, and particularly
advantageous when the field equations are not separable. As an illustration of
the method we investigate massive vector (Proca) perturbations in the Kerr
metric, which do not appear to be separable in the standard Teukolsky
formalism. Working in a perturbative scheme, we discuss two important effects
induced by rotation: a Zeeman-like shift of nonaxisymmetric quasinormal modes
and bound states with different azimuthal number m, and the coupling between
axial and polar modes with different multipolar index l. We explicitly compute
the perturbation equations up to second order in rotation, but in principle the
method can be extended to any order. Working at first order in rotation we show
that polar and axial Proca modes can be computed by solving two decoupled sets
of equations, and we derive a single master equation describing axial
perturbations of spin s=0 and s=+-1. By extending the calculation to second
order we can study the superradiant regime of Proca perturbations in a
self-consistent way. For the first time we show that Proca fields around Kerr
black holes exhibit a superradiant instability, which is significantly stronger
than for massive scalar fields. Because of this instability, astrophysical
observations of spinning black holes provide the tightest upper limit on the
mass of the photon: mv<4x10^-20 eV under our most conservative assumptions.
Spin measurements for the largest black holes could reduce this bound to
mv<10^-22 eV or lower.Comment: v1: 29 pages, 9 figures, 3 appendices. v2: References added and
improved discussion. Matches the version to appear in Physical Review D.
Mathematica notebooks available here http://blackholes.ist.utl.pt/?page=Files
and http://www.phy.olemiss.edu/~berti/qnms.htm
Course-based Science Research Promotes Learning in Diverse Students at Diverse Institutions
Course-based research experiences (CREs) are powerful strategies for spreading learning and improving persistence for all students, both science majors and nonscience majors. Here we address the crucial components of CREs (context, discovery, ownership, iteration, communication, presentation) found across a broad range of such courses at a variety of academic institutions. We also address how the design of a CRE should vary according to the background of student participants; no single CRE format is perfect. We provide a framework for implementing CREs across multiple institutional types and several disciplines throughout the typical four years of undergraduate work, designed to a variety of student backgrounds. Our experiences implementing CREs also provide guidance on overcoming barriers to their implementation
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