72 research outputs found
The singular field used to calculate the self-force on non-spinning and spinning particles
The singular field of a point charge has recently been described in terms of
a new Green's function of curved spacetime. This singular field plays an
important role in the calculation of the self-force acting upon the particle.
We provide a method for calculating the singular field and a catalog of
expansions of the singular field associated with the geodesic motion of
monopole and dipole sources for scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational
fields. These results can be used, for example, to calculate the effects of the
self-force acting on a particle as it moves through spacetime.Comment: 14 pages; addressed referee's comments; published in PhysRev
Using the INSPIRAL program to search for gravitational waves from low-mass binary inspiral
The INSPIRAL program is the LIGO Scientific Collaboration's computational
engine for the search for gravitational waves from binary neutron stars and
sub-solar mass black holes. We describe how this program, which makes use of
the FINDCHIRP algorithm (discussed in a companion paper), is integrated into a
sophisticated data analysis pipeline that was used in the search for low-mass
binary inspirals in data taken during the second LIGO science run.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravity for
the special issue of the GWDAW9 Proceeding
Report on the first binary black hole inspiral search in LIGO data
The LIGO Scientific Collaboration is currently engaged in the first search
for binary black hole inspiral signals in real data. We are using the data from
the second LIGO science run and we focus on inspiral signals coming from binary
systems with component masses between 3 and 20 solar masses. We describe the
analysis methods used and report on preliminary estimates for the sensitivities
of the LIGO instruments during the second science run.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Added references for section 2, corrected figure
1. To appear in CQG, in a special issue on the proceedings of the 9th Annual
Gravitational Wave Data Analysis Workshop (GWDAW), Annecy, France, Dec. 200
Implementation of multimodal infection control and hand hygiene strategies in acute-care hospitals in Greece: a cross-sectional benchmarking survey
Background: In this first attempt to suggest achievable standards for improvement in hospital infection prevention and control (IPC) in Greece, we assessed main IPC structure and process indicators emphasizing on hand hygiene.
Methods: Acute-care hospitals across the country participated in a cross-sectional survey by completing the World Health Organization Hand Hygiene Self-Assessment Framework (HHSAF) and by providing hospital-level IPC indicators.
Results: Seventeen hospitals completed the survey, comprising 14% of the country’s public hospitals. Median IPC staffing levels were 0.8 nurses and 0.5 doctors per 250 beds, respectively. Few hospitals implemented full multimodal IPC programs. HHSAF indicated that appropriate hand hygiene practices and promotion strategies were in place in most hospitals, but mean HHSAF score (289) was lower compared to studies in Italy (332, p=0.040) and the USA (373, p<0.001). Presence of one additional IPC nurse was independently associated with increases by 53% in the HHSAF median score for training-education (p=0.035) and by 38% in the lower 30th percentile score for safety climate (p=0.049).
Conclusions: Surveyed hospitals are, on average, at an intermediate level in hand hygiene practice but require improvements on training-education, evaluation-feedback and safety climate. Ensuring adequate IPC nurse staffing levels and systematically implementing multimodal IPC programs may lead to substantial improvements
Perspective on gravitational self-force analyses
A point particle of mass moving on a geodesic creates a perturbation
, of the spacetime metric , that diverges at the particle.
Simple expressions are given for the singular part of and its
distortion caused by the spacetime. This singular part h^\SS_{ab} is
described in different coordinate systems and in different gauges. Subtracting
h^\SS_{ab} from leaves a regular remainder . The
self-force on the particle from its own gravitational field adjusts the world
line at \Or(\mu) to be a geodesic of ; this adjustment
includes all of the effects of radiation reaction. For the case that the
particle is a small non-rotating black hole, we give a uniformly valid
approximation to a solution of the Einstein equations, with a remainder of
\Or(\mu^2) as .
An example presents the actual steps involved in a self-force calculation.
Gauge freedom introduces ambiguity in perturbation analysis. However,
physically interesting problems avoid this ambiguity.Comment: 40 pages, to appear in a special issue of CQG on radiation reaction,
contains additional references, improved notation for tensor harmonic
Searching for Gravitational Waves from Binary Inspirals with LIGO
We describe the current status of the search for gravitational waves from
inspiralling compact binary systems in LIGO data. We review the result from the
first scientific run of LIGO (S1). We present the goals of the search of data
taken in the second scientific run (S2) and describe the differences between
the methods used in S1 and S2.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. Published in proceedings of the 8th Gravitational
Wave Data Analysis Workshop, Milwaukee, WI, USA, 17-20 December 200
Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with 39 Gamma-Ray Bursts Using Data from the Second, Third, and Fourth LIGO Runs
We present the results of a search for short-duration gravitational-wave
bursts associated with 39 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by gamma-ray
satellite experiments during LIGO's S2, S3, and S4 science runs. The search
involves calculating the crosscorrelation between two interferometer data
streams surrounding the GRB trigger time. We search for associated
gravitational radiation from single GRBs, and also apply statistical tests to
search for a gravitational-wave signature associated with the whole sample. For
the sample examined, we find no evidence for the association of gravitational
radiation with GRBs, either on a single-GRB basis or on a statistical basis.
Simulating gravitational-wave bursts with sine-gaussian waveforms, we set upper
limits on the root-sum-square of the gravitational-wave strain amplitude of
such waveforms at the times of the GRB triggers. We also demonstrate how a
sample of several GRBs can be used collectively to set constraints on
population models. The small number of GRBs and the significant change in
sensitivity of the detectors over the three runs, however, limits the
usefulness of a population study for the S2, S3, and S4 runs. Finally, we
discuss prospects for the search sensitivity for the ongoing S5 run, and beyond
for the next generation of detectors.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, 14 tables; minor changes to text and Fig. 2;
accepted by Phys. Rev.
Search for gravitational waves from binary inspirals in S3 and S4 LIGO data
We report on a search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of compact
binaries during the third and fourth LIGO science runs. The search focused on
gravitational waves generated during the inspiral phase of the binary
evolution. In our analysis, we considered three categories of compact binary
systems, ordered by mass: (i) primordial black hole binaries with masses in the
range 0.35 M(sun) < m1, m2 < 1.0 M(sun), (ii) binary neutron stars with masses
in the range 1.0 M(sun) < m1, m2 < 3.0 M(sun), and (iii) binary black holes
with masses in the range 3.0 M(sun)< m1, m2 < m_(max) with the additional
constraint m1+ m2 < m_(max), where m_(max) was set to 40.0 M(sun) and 80.0
M(sun) in the third and fourth science runs, respectively. Although the
detectors could probe to distances as far as tens of Mpc, no gravitational-wave
signals were identified in the 1364 hours of data we analyzed. Assuming a
binary population with a Gaussian distribution around 0.75-0.75 M(sun), 1.4-1.4
M(sun), and 5.0-5.0 M(sun), we derived 90%-confidence upper limit rates of 4.9
yr^(-1) L10^(-1) for primordial black hole binaries, 1.2 yr^(-1) L10^(-1) for
binary neutron stars, and 0.5 yr^(-1) L10^(-1) for stellar mass binary black
holes, where L10 is 10^(10) times the blue light luminosity of the Sun.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure
Search for gravitational-wave bursts in LIGO data from the fourth science run
The fourth science run of the LIGO and GEO 600 gravitational-wave detectors,
carried out in early 2005, collected data with significantly lower noise than
previous science runs. We report on a search for short-duration
gravitational-wave bursts with arbitrary waveform in the 64-1600 Hz frequency
range appearing in all three LIGO interferometers. Signal consistency tests,
data quality cuts, and auxiliary-channel vetoes are applied to reduce the rate
of spurious triggers. No gravitational-wave signals are detected in 15.5 days
of live observation time; we set a frequentist upper limit of 0.15 per day (at
90% confidence level) on the rate of bursts with large enough amplitudes to be
detected reliably. The amplitude sensitivity of the search, characterized using
Monte Carlo simulations, is several times better than that of previous
searches. We also provide rough estimates of the distances at which
representative supernova and binary black hole merger signals could be detected
with 50% efficiency by this analysis.Comment: Corrected amplitude sensitivities (7% change on average); 30 pages,
submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit
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