Higher-order spin effects in the dynamics of compact binaries II. Radiation field

Motivated by the search for gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes, we investigate the gravitational radiation field of point particles with spins within the framework of the multipolar-post-Newtonian wave generation formalism. We compute: (i) the spin-orbit (SO) coupling effects in the binary's mass and current quadrupole moments one post-Newtonian (1PN) order beyond the dominant effect, (ii) the SO contributions in the gravitational-wave energy flux and (iii) the secular evolution of the binary's orbital phase up to 2.5PN order. Crucial ingredients for obtaining the 2.5PN contribution in the orbital phase are the binary's energy and the spin precession equations, derived in paper I of this series. These results provide more accurate gravitational-wave templates to be used in the data analysis of rapidly rotating Kerr-type black-hole binaries with the ground-based detectors LIGO, Virgo, GEO 600 and TAMA300, and the space-based detector LISA.Comment: includes the correction of an erratum to be published in Phys. Rev.

On the Role of Low-Energy CP Violation in Leptogenesis

The link between low-energy CP violation and leptogenesis became more accessible with the understanding of flavor effects. However, a definite well-motivated model where such a link occurs was still lacking. Adjoint SU(5) is a simple grand unified theory where neutrino masses are generated through the Type I and Type III seesaw mechanisms, and the lepton asymmetry is generated by the fermionic triplet responsible for the Type III seesaw. We focus exclusively on the case of inverted hierarchy for neutrinos, and we show that successful flavored leptogenesis in this theory strongly points towards low-energy CP violation. Moreover, since the range of allowed masses for the triplet is very restricted, we find that the discovery at the LHC of new states present in the theory, together with proton decay and unification of gauge couplings, can conspire to provide a hint in favor of leptogenesis.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Dirac phase leptogenesis

I present here a concise summary of the preprint arXiv:0707.3024, written in collaboration with A. Anisimov and P. Di Bari. There we discuss leptogenesis when {\em CP} violation stems exlusively from the Dirac phase in the PMNS mixing matrix. Under this assumption it turns out that the situation is very constrained when a hierarchical heavy right-handed (RH) neutrino spectrum is considered: the allowed regions are small and the final asymmetry depends on the initial conditions. On the other hand, for a quasi-degenerate spectrum of RH neutrinos, the {\em CP} asymmetry can be enhanced and the situation becomes much more favorable, with no dependence on the initial conditions. Interestingly, in the extreme case of resonant leptogenesis, in order to match the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe, we obtain a lower bound on \sin \q_{13} which depends on the lightest active neutrino mass m_1.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the TAUP 07 conference, Sep. 11-15, Sendai, Japa

Gravitational-Wave Inspiral of Compact Binary Systems to 7/2 Post-Newtonian Order

The inspiral of compact binaries, driven by gravitational-radiation reaction, is investigated through 7/2 post-Newtonian (3.5PN) order beyond the quadrupole radiation. We outline the derivation of the 3.5PN-accurate binary's center-of-mass energy and emitted gravitational flux. The analysis consistently includes the relativistic effects in the binary's equations of motion and multipole moments, as well as the contributions of tails, and tails of tails, in the wave zone. However the result is not fully determined because of some physical incompleteness, present at the 3PN order, of the model of point-particle and the associated Hadamard-type self-field regularization. The orbital phase, whose prior knowledge is crucial for searching and analyzing the inspiral signal, is computed from the standard energy balance argument.Comment: 12 pages, version which includes the correction of an Erratum to be published in Phys. Rev. D (2005

Minimal Lepton Flavour Violation and Leptogenesis with exclusively low-energy CP Violation

We study the implications of a successful leptogenesis within the framework of Minimal Lepton Flavour Violation combined with radiative resonant leptogenesis and the PMNS matrix being the only source of CP violation, which can be obtained provided flavour effects are taken into account. We find that the right amount of the baryon asymmetry of the universe can be generated under the conditions of a normal hierarchy of the light neutrino masses, a non-vanishing Majorana phase, sin(theta_{13})>0.13 and m_{nu,lightest}<0.04 eV. If this is fulfilled, we find strong correlations among ratios of charged LFV processes.Comment: published in JHEP, small change

Full Boltzmann equations for leptogenesis including scattering

We study the evolution of a cosmological baryon asymmetry produced via leptogenesis by means of the full classical Boltzmann equations, without the assumption of kinetic equilibrium and including all quantum statistical factors. Beginning with the full mode equations we derive the usual equations of motion for the right-handed neutrino number density and integrated lepton asymmetry, and show explicitly the impact of each assumption on these quantities. For the first time, we investigate also the effects of scattering of the right-handed neutrino with the top quark to leading order in the Yukawa couplings by means of the full Boltzmann equations. We find that in our full Boltzmann treatment the final lepton asymmetry can be suppressed by as much as a factor of 1.5 in the weak wash-out regime (K<1), compared to the usual integrated approach which assumes kinetic equilibrium and neglects quantum statistics. This suppression is in contrast with the enhancement seen in some previous studies that considered only decay and inverse decay of the right-handed neutrino. However, this suppression quickly decreases as we increase K. In the strong wash-out regime (K>1), the full Boltzmann treatment and the integrated approach give nearly identical final lepton asymmetries (within 10 % of each other at K>3). Finally, we show that the opposing effects of quantum statistics on decays/inverse decays and the scattering processes tend to reduce the net importance of scattering on leptogenesis in the full treatment compared to the integrated approach.Comment: 39 pages, 8 figures, typos corrected, replaced to match published versio

Post-Newtonian approximation for isolated systems calculated by matched asymptotic expansions

Two long-standing problems with the post-Newtonian approximation for isolated slowly-moving systems in general relativity are: (i) the appearance at high post-Newtonian orders of divergent Poisson integrals, casting a doubt on the soundness of the post-Newtonian series; (ii) the domain of validity of the approximation which is limited to the near-zone of the source, and prevents one, a priori, from incorporating the condition of no-incoming radiation, to be imposed at past null infinity. In this article, we resolve the problem (i) by iterating the post-Newtonian hierarchy of equations by means of a new (Poisson-type) integral operator that is free of divergencies, and the problem (ii) by matching the post-Newtonian near-zone field to the exterior field of the source, known from previous work as a multipolar-post-Minkowskian expansion satisfying the relevant boundary conditions at infinity. As a result, we obtain an algorithm for iterating the post-Newtonian series up to any order, and we determine the terms, present in the post-Newtonian field, that are associated with the gravitational-radiation reaction onto an isolated slowly-moving matter system.Comment: 61 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Gravitational waves from black hole binary inspiral and merger: The span of third post-Newtonian effective-one-body templates

We extend the description of gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes during the final stages of inspiral and merger by introducing in the third post-Newtonian (3PN) effective-one-body (EOB) templates seven new ``flexibility'' parameters that affect the two-body dynamics and gravitational radiation emission. The plausible ranges of these flexibility parameters, notably the parameter characterising the fourth post-Newtonian effects in the dynamics, are estimated. Using these estimates, we show that the currently available standard 3PN bank of EOB templates does ``span'' the space of signals opened up by all the flexibility parameters, in that their maximized mutual overlaps are larger than 96.5%. This confirms the effectualness of 3PN EOB templates for the detection of binary black holes in gravitational-wave data from interferometric detectors. The possibility to drastically reduce the number of EOB templates using a few ``universal'' phasing functions is suggested.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, with revtex4, Minor clarifications, Final published versio

Merger of black hole-neutron star binaries: nonspinning black hole case

We perform a simulation for merger of a black hole (BH)-neutron star (NS) binary in full general relativity preparing a quasicircular state as initial condition. The BH is modeled by a moving puncture with no spin and the NS by the $\Gamma$-law equation of state with $\Gamma=2$. Corotating velocity field is assumed for the NS. The mass of the BH and the rest-mass of the NS are chosen to be $\approx 3.2 M_{\odot}$ and $\approx 1.4 M_{\odot}$ with relatively large radius of the NS $\approx 14$ km. The NS is tidally disrupted near the innermost stable orbit but $\sim 80$ of the material is swallowed into the BH with small disk mass $\sim 0.3M_{\odot}$ even for such small BH mass $\sim 3M_{\odot}$. The result indicates that the system of a BH and a massive disk of $\sim M_{\odot}$ is not formed from nonspinning BH-NS binaries, although a disk of mass $\sim 0.1M_{\odot}$ is a possible outcome.Comment: 5 pages. Phys. Rev. D 74, 121503 (R) (2006