126 research outputs found
Detecting extra dimensions with gravity wave spectroscopy: the black string brane-world
Using the black string between two branes as a model of a brane-world black
hole, we compute the gravity wave perturbations and identify the features
arising from the additional polarizations of the graviton. The standard
four-dimensional gravitational wave signal acquires late-time oscillations due
to massive modes of the graviton. The Fourier transform of these oscillations
shows a series of spikes associated with the masses of the Kaluza-Klein modes,
providing in principle a spectroscopic signature of extra dimensions.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. Comments on the frequency and detectability of
the massive mode signal added, and title modified. Version accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Observational Constraints on the Averaged Universe
Averaging in general relativity is a complicated operation, due to the
general covariance of the theory and the non-linearity of Einstein's equations.
The latter of these ensures that smoothing spacetime over cosmological scales
does not yield the same result as solving Einstein's equations with a smooth
matter distribution, and that the smooth models we fit to observations need not
be simply related to the actual geometry of spacetime. One specific consequence
of this is a decoupling of the geometrical spatial curvature term in the metric
from the dynamical spatial curvature in the Friedmann equation. Here we
investigate the consequences of this decoupling by fitting to a combination of
HST, CMB, SNIa and BAO data sets. We find that only the geometrical spatial
curvature is tightly constrained, and that our ability to constrain dark energy
dynamics will be severely impaired until we gain a thorough understanding of
the averaging problem in cosmology.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
The cosmological gravitational wave background from primordial density perturbations
We discuss the gravitational wave background generated by primordial density
perturbations evolving during the radiation era. At second-order in a
perturbative expansion, density fluctuations produce gravitational waves. We
calculate the power spectra of gravitational waves from this mechanism, and
show that, in principle, future gravitational wave detectors could be used to
constrain the primordial power spectrum on scales vastly different from those
currently being probed by large-scale structure. As examples we compute the
gravitational wave background generated by both a power-law spectrum on all
scales, and a delta-function power spectrum on a single scale.Comment: 8 Page
Delocalization of brane gravity by a bulk black hole
We investigate the analogue of the Randall-Sundrum brane-world in the case
when the bulk contains a black hole. Instead of the static vacuum Minkowski
brane of the RS model, we have an Einstein static vacuum brane. We find that
the presence of the bulk black hole has a dramatic effect on the gravity that
is felt by brane observers. In the RS model, the 5D graviton has a stable
localized zero-mode that reproduces 4D gravity on the brane at low energies.
With a bulk black hole, there is no such solution -- gravity is delocalized by
the 5D horizon. However, the brane does support a discrete spectrum of
metastable massive bound states, or quasinormal modes, as was recently shown to
be the case in the RS scenario. These states should dominate the high frequency
component of the bulk gravity wave spectrum on a cosmological brane. We expect
our results to generalize to any bulk spacetime containing a Killing horizon.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Galaxy correlations and the BAO in a void universe: structure formation as a test of the Copernican Principle
A suggested solution to the dark energy problem is the void model, where
accelerated expansion is replaced by Hubble-scale inhomogeneity. In these
models, density perturbations grow on a radially inhomogeneous background. This
large scale inhomogeneity distorts the spherical Baryon Acoustic Oscillation
feature into an ellipsoid which implies that the bump in the galaxy correlation
function occurs at different scales in the radial and transverse correlation
functions. We compute these for the first time, under the approximation that
curvature gradients do not couple the scalar modes to vector and tensor modes.
The radial and transverse correlation functions are very different from those
of the concordance model, even when the models have the same average BAO scale.
This implies that if void models are fine-tuned to satisfy average BAO data,
there is enough extra information in the correlation functions to distinguish a
void model from the concordance model. We expect these new features to remain
when the full perturbation equations are solved, which means that the radial
and transverse galaxy correlation functions can be used as a powerful test of
the Copernican Principle.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, matches published versio
A gravitational wave window on extra dimensions
We report on the possibility of detecting a submillimetre-sized extra
dimension by observing gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by pointlike objects
orbiting a braneworld black hole. Matter in the `visible' universe can generate
a discrete spectrum of high frequency GWs with amplitudes moderately weaker
than the predictions of general relativity (GR), while GW signals generated by
matter on a `shadow' brane hidden in the bulk are potentially strong enough to
be detected using current technology. We know of no other astrophysical
phenomena that produces GWs with a similar spectrum, which stresses the need to
develop detectors capable of measuring this high-frequency signature of large
extra dimensions.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
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