Graviton propagation within the context of the D-material universe

Motivated by the recent breakthrough of the detection of Gravitational Waves (GW) from coalescent black holes by the aLIGO interferometers, we study the propagation of GW in the {\sl D-material universe}, which we have recently shown to be compatible with large-scale structure and inflationary phenomenology. The medium of D-particles induces an effective mass for the graviton, as a consequence of the formation of recoil-velocity field condensates due to the underlying Born-Infeld dynamics. There is a competing effect, due to a super-luminal refractive index, as a result of the gravitational energy of D-particles acting as a dark matter component, with which propagating gravitons interact. We examine conditions for the condensate under which the latter effect is sub-leading. We argue that if quantum fluctuations of the recoil velocity are relatively strong, which can happen in the current era of the universe, then the condensate, and hence the induced mass of the graviton, can be several orders of magnitude larger than the magnitude of the cosmological constant today. Hence, we constrain the graviton mass using aLIGO and pulsar timing observations (which give the most stringent bounds at present). In such a sub-luminal graviton case, there is also a gravitational Cherenkov effect for ordinary high energy cosmic matter, which is further constrained by means of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray observations. Assuming cosmic rays of extragalactic origin, the bounds on the quantum condensate strength, based on the gravitational Cherenkov effect, are of the same order as those from aLIGO measurements, in contrast to the case where a galactic origin of the cosmic rays is assumed, in which case the corresponding bounds are much weaker.Comment: 21 pages, JCAP style, no figure

The D-material universe

In a previous publication by some of the authors (N.E.M., M.S. and M.F.Y.), we have argued that the "D-material universe", that is a model of a brane world propagating in a higher-dimensional bulk populated by collections of D-particle stringy defects, provides a model for the growth of large-scale structure in the universe via the vector field in its spectrum. The latter corresponds to D-particle recoil velocity excitations as a result of the interactions of the defects with stringy matter and radiation on the brane world. In this article, we first elaborate further on the results of the previous study on the galactic growth era and analyse the circumstances under which the D-particle recoil velocity fluid may "mimic" dark matter in galaxies. A lensing phenomenology is also presented for some samples of galaxies, which previously were known to provide tension for modified gravity (TeVeS) models. The current model is found in agreement with these lensing data. Then we discuss a cosmic evolution for the D-material universe by analysing the conditions under which the late eras of this universe associated with large-scale structure are connected to early epochs, where inflation takes place. It is shown that inflation is induced by dense populations of D-particles in the early universe, with the role of the inflaton field played by the condensate of the D-particle recoil-velocity fields under their interaction with relativistic stringy matter, only for sufficiently large brane tensions and low string mass scales compared to the Hubble scale. On the other hand, for large string scales, where the recoil-velocity condensate fields are weak, inflation cannot be driven by the D-particle defects alone. In such cases inflation may be driven by dilaton (or other moduli) fields in the underlying string theory.Comment: 42 pages latex, one pdf figure incorporated, uses special macro

Gravitational wave bursts from cosmic string cusps and pseudocusps

We study the relative contribution of cusps and pseudocusps, on cosmic (super)strings, to the emitted bursts of gravitational waves. The gravitational wave emission in the vicinity of highly relativistic points on the string follows, for a high enough frequency, a logarithmic decrease. The slope has been analytically found to be $^{-4}/_3$ for points reaching exactly the speed of light in the limit $c=1$. We investigate the variations of this high frequency behaviour with respect to the velocity of the points considered, for strings formed through a numerical simulation, and we then compute numerically the gravitational waves emitted. We find that for string points moving with velocities as far as $10^{-3}$ from the theoretical (relativistic) limit $c=1$, gravitational wave emission follows a behaviour consistent with that of cusps, effectively increasing the number of cusps on a string. Indeed, depending on the velocity threshold chosen for such behaviour, we show the emitting part of the string worldsheet is enhanced by a factor ${\cal O}(10^3)$ with respect to the emission of cusps only.Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures; Added referenc

Consistent neutron star models with magnetic-field-dependent equations of state

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Angiotensin 1A receptors transfected into caudal ventrolateral medulla inhibit baroreflex gain and stress responses

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