6,877 research outputs found
Gravitational Wave Burst Source Direction Estimation using Time and Amplitude Information
In this article we study two problems that arise when using timing and
amplitude estimates from a network of interferometers (IFOs) to evaluate the
direction of an incident gravitational wave burst (GWB). First, we discuss an
angular bias in the least squares timing-based approach that becomes
increasingly relevant for moderate to low signal-to-noise ratios. We show how
estimates of the arrival time uncertainties in each detector can be used to
correct this bias. We also introduce a stand alone parameter estimation
algorithm that can improve the arrival time estimation and provide
root-sum-squared strain amplitude (hrss) values for each site. In the second
part of the paper we discuss how to resolve the directional ambiguity that
arises from observations in three non co-located interferometers between the
true source location and its mirror image across the plane containing the
detectors. We introduce a new, exact relationship among the hrss values at the
three sites that, for sufficiently large signal amplitudes, determines the true
source direction regardless of whether or not the signal is linearly polarized.
Both the algorithm estimating arrival times, arrival time uncertainties, and
hrss values and the directional follow-up can be applied to any set of
gravitational wave candidates observed in a network of three non co-located
interferometers. As a case study we test the methods on simulated waveforms
embedded in simulations of the noise of the LIGO and Virgo detectors at design
sensitivity.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figures, submitted to PR
Physics of Trans-Planckian Gravity
We study the field theoretical description of a generic theory of gravity
flowing to Einstein General Relativity in IR. We prove that, if ghost-free, in
the weakly coupled regime such a theory can never become weaker than General
Relativity. Using this fact, as a byproduct, we suggest that in a ghost-free
theory of gravity trans-Planckian propagating quantum degrees of freedom cannot
exist. The only physical meaning of a trans-Planckian pole is the one of a
classical state (Black Hole) which is described by the light IR quantum degrees
of freedom and gives exponentially-suppressed contributions to virtual
processes. In this picture Einstein gravity is UV self-complete, although not
Wilsonian, and sub-Planckian distances are unobservable in any healthy theory
of gravity. We then finally show that this UV/IR correspondence puts a severe
constraint on any attempt of conventional Wilsonian UV-completion of
trans-Planckian gravity. Specifically, there is no well-defined energy domain
in which gravity could become asymptotically weak or safe.Comment: 23 pages, 4 figures, v2: Paper reorganized to improve clarity;
additional explanations and references added; version accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
The Pulsed Neutron Beam EDM Experiment
We report on the Beam EDM experiment, which aims to employ a pulsed cold
neutron beam to search for an electric dipole moment instead of the established
use of storable ultracold neutrons. We present a brief overview of the basic
measurement concept and the current status of our proof-of-principle Ramsey
apparatus
Domain Wall Depinning in Random Media by AC Fields
The viscous motion of an interface driven by an ac external field of
frequency omega_0 in a random medium is considered here for the first time. The
velocity exhibits a smeared depinning transition showing a double hysteresis
which is absent in the adiabatic case omega_0 --> 0. Using scaling arguments
and an approximate renormalization group calculation we explain the main
characteristics of the hysteresis loop. In the low frequency limit these can be
expressed in terms of the depinning threshold and the critical exponents of the
adiabatic case.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Nonlinear dynamics, rectification, and phase locking for particles on symmetrical two-dimensional periodic substrates with dc and circular ac drives
We investigate the dynamical motion of particles on a two-dimensional
symmetric periodic substrate in the presence of both a dc drive along a
symmetry direction of the periodic substrate and an additional circular ac
drive. For large enough ac drives, the particle orbit encircles one or more
potential maxima of the periodic substrate. In this case, when an additional
increasing dc drive is applied in the longitudinal direction, the longitudinal
velocity increases in a series of discrete steps that are integer multiples of
the lattice constant of the substrate times the frequency. Fractional steps can
also occur. These integer and fractional steps correspond to distinct stable
dynamical orbits. A number of these phases also show a rectification in the
positive or negative transverse direction where a non-zero transverse velocity
occurs in the absence of a dc transverse drive. We map out the phase diagrams
of the regions of rectification as a function of ac amplitude, and find a
series of tongues. Most of the features, including the steps in the
longitudinal velocity and the transverse rectification, can be captured with a
simple toy model and by arguments from nonlinear maps. We have also
investigated the effects of thermal disorder and incommensuration on the
rectification phenomena, and find that for increasing disorder, the
rectification regions are gradually smeared and the longitudinal velocity steps
are no longer flat but show a linearly increasing velocity.Comment: 14 pages, 17 postscript figure
LISA detections of massive black hole inspirals: parameter extraction errors due to inaccurate template waveforms
The planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is expected to detect
the inspiral and merger of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) at z <~ 5 with
signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of hundreds to thousands. Because of these high
SNRs, and because these SNRs accrete over periods of weeks to months, it should
be possible to extract the physical parameters of these systems with high
accuracy; for instance, for a ~ 10^6 Msun MBHBs at z = 1 it should be possible
to determine the two masses to ~ 0.1% and the sky location to ~ 1 degree.
However, those are just the errors due to noise: there will be additional
"theoretical" errors due to inaccuracies in our best model waveforms, which are
still only approximate. The goal of this paper is to estimate the typical
magnitude of these theoretical errors. We develop mathematical tools for this
purpose, and apply them to a somewhat simplified version of the MBHB problem,
in which we consider just the inspiral part of the waveform and neglect
spin-induced precession, eccentricity, and PN amplitude corrections. For this
simplified version, we estimate that theoretical uncertainties in sky position
will typically be ~ 1 degree, i.e., comparable to the statistical uncertainty.
For the mass and spin parameters, our results suggest that while theoretical
errors will be rather small absolutely, they could still dominate over
statistical errors (by roughly an order of magnitude) for the strongest
sources. The tools developed here should be useful for estimating the magnitude
of theoretical errors in many other problems in gravitational-wave astronomy.Comment: RevTeX4, 16 pages, 2 EPS figures. Corrected typos, clarified
statement
HadISD: a quality-controlled global synoptic report database for selected variables at long-term stations from 1973--2011
[Abridged] This paper describes the creation of HadISD: an automatically
quality-controlled synoptic resolution dataset of temperature, dewpoint
temperature, sea-level pressure, wind speed, wind direction and cloud cover
from global weather stations for 1973--2011. The full dataset consists of over
6000 stations, with 3427 long-term stations deemed to have sufficient sampling
and quality for climate applications requiring sub-daily resolution. As with
other surface datasets, coverage is heavily skewed towards Northern Hemisphere
mid-latitudes.
The dataset is constructed from a large pre-existing ASCII flatfile data bank
that represents over a decade of substantial effort at data retrieval,
reformatting and provision. These raw data have had varying levels of quality
control applied to them by individual data providers. The work proceeded in
several steps: merging stations with multiple reporting identifiers;
reformatting to netCDF; quality control; and then filtering to form a final
dataset. Particular attention has been paid to maintaining true extreme values
where possible within an automated, objective process. Detailed validation has
been performed on a subset of global stations and also on UK data using known
extreme events to help finalise the QC tests. Further validation was performed
on a selection of extreme events world-wide (Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the
cold snap in Alaska in 1989 and heat waves in SE Australia in 2009). Although
the filtering has removed the poorest station records, no attempt has been made
to homogenise the data thus far. Hence non-climatic, time-varying errors may
still exist in many of the individual station records and care is needed in
inferring long-term trends from these data.
A version-control system has been constructed for this dataset to allow for
the clear documentation of any updates and corrections in the future.Comment: Published in Climate of the Past, www.clim-past.net/8/1649/2012/. 31
pages, 23 figures, 9 pages. For data see
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadis
Comments on the black hole information problem
String theory provides numerous examples of duality between gravitational
theories and unitary gauge theories. To resolve the black hole information
paradox in this setting, it is necessary to better understand how unitarity is
implemented on the gravity side. We argue that unitarity is restored by
nonlocal effects whose initial magnitude is suppressed by the exponential of
the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Time-slicings for which effective field theory
is valid are obtained by demanding the mutual back-reaction of quanta be small.
The resulting bounds imply that nonlocal effects do not lead to observable
violations of causality or conflict with the equivalence principle for
infalling observers, yet implement information retrieval for observers who stay
outside the black hole.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures, revtex, v2 figure added and some improvements to
presentatio
Bottom quark electroproduction in variable flavor number schemes
Two variable flavor number schemes are used to describe bottom quark
production in deep inelastic electron-proton scattering. In these schemes the
coefficient functions are derived from mass factorization of the heavy quark
coefficient functions presented in a fixed flavor number scheme. Also one has
to construct a parton density set with five light flavors (u,d,s,c,b) out of a
set which only contains four light flavors (u,d,s,c). In order the
two sets are discontinuous at which follows from mass factorization
of the heavy quark coefficient functions when it is carried out in the -scheme. Both variable flavor number schemes give almost identical
predictions for the bottom structure functions and . Also
they both agree well with the corresponding results based on fixed order
four-flavor perturbation theory over a wide range in and .Comment: Latex with seventeen PostScript figure
Stability and Quasinormal Modes of Black holes in Tensor-Vector-Scalar theory: Scalar Field Perturbations
The imminent detection of gravitational waves will trigger precision tests of
gravity through observations of quasinormal ringing of black holes. While
General Relativity predicts just two polarizations of gravitational waves, the
so-called plus and cross polarizations, numerous alternative theories of
gravity predict up to six different polarizations which will potentially be
observed in current and future generations of gravitational wave detectors.
Bekenstein's Tensor-Vector-Scalar (TeVeS) theory and its generalization fall
into one such class of theory that predict the full gamut of six polarizations
of gravitational waves. In this paper we begin the study of quasinormal modes
(QNMs) in TeVeS by studying perturbations of the scalar field in a spherically
symmetric background. We show that, at least in the case where superluminal
propagation of perturbations is not present, black holes are generically stable
to this kind of perturbation. We also make a unique prediction that, as the
limit of the various coupling parameters of the theory tend to zero, the QNM
spectrum tends to times the QNM spectrum induced by scalar
perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole in General Relativity due to the
intrinsic presence of the background vector field. We further show that the QNM
spectrum does not vary significantly from this value for small values of the
theory's coupling parameters, however can vary by as much as a few percent for
larger, but still physically relevant parameters.Comment: Published in Physical Review
- …