2,221 research outputs found
Co-accelerated particles in the C-metric
With appropriately chosen parameters, the C-metric represents two uniformly
accelerated black holes moving in the opposite directions on the axis of the
axial symmetry (the z-axis). The acceleration is caused by nodal singularities
located on the z-axis.
In the~present paper, geodesics in the~C-metric are examined. In general
there exist three types of timelike or null geodesics in the C-metric:
geodesics describing particles 1) falling under the black hole horizon;
2)crossing the acceleration horizon; and 3) orbiting around the z-axis and
co-accelerating with the black holes.
Using an effective potential, it can be shown that there exist stable
timelike geodesics of the third type if the product of the parameters of the
C-metric, mA, is smaller than a certain critical value. Null geodesics of the
third type are always unstable. Special timelike and null geodesics of the
third type are also found in an analytical form.Comment: 10 pages, 12 EPS figures, changes mainly in abstract & introductio
Chaotic Scattering and Capture of Strings by Black Hole
We consider scattering and capture of circular cosmic strings by a
Schwarzschild black hole. Although being a priori a very simple axially
symmetric two-body problem, it shows all the features of chaotic scattering. In
particular, it contains a fractal set of unstable periodic solutions; a
so-called strange repellor. We study the different types of trajectories and
obtain the fractal dimension of the basin-boundary separating the space of
initial conditions according to the different asymptotic outcomes. We also
consider the fractal dimension as a function of energy, and discuss the
transition from order to chaos.Comment: RevTeX 3.1, 9 pages, 5 figure
Boost-rotation symmetric type D radiative metrics in Bondi coordinates
The asymptotic properties of the solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell equations
with boost-rotation symmetry and Petrov type D are studied. We find series
solutions to the pertinent set of equations which are suitable for a late time
descriptions in coordinates which are well adapted for the description of the
radiative properties of spacetimes (Bondi coordinates). By calculating the
total charge, Bondi and NUT mass and the Newman-Penrose constants of the
spacetimes we provide a physical interpretation of the free parameters of the
solutions. Additional relevant aspects on the asymptotics and radiative
properties of the spacetimes considered, such as the possible polarization
states of the gravitational and electromagnetic field, are discussed through
the way
Tests of Bayesian Model Selection Techniques for Gravitational Wave Astronomy
The analysis of gravitational wave data involves many model selection
problems. The most important example is the detection problem of selecting
between the data being consistent with instrument noise alone, or instrument
noise and a gravitational wave signal. The analysis of data from ground based
gravitational wave detectors is mostly conducted using classical statistics,
and methods such as the Neyman-Pearson criteria are used for model selection.
Future space based detectors, such as the \emph{Laser Interferometer Space
Antenna} (LISA), are expected to produced rich data streams containing the
signals from many millions of sources. Determining the number of sources that
are resolvable, and the most appropriate description of each source poses a
challenging model selection problem that may best be addressed in a Bayesian
framework. An important class of LISA sources are the millions of low-mass
binary systems within our own galaxy, tens of thousands of which will be
detectable. Not only are the number of sources unknown, but so are the number
of parameters required to model the waveforms. For example, a significant
subset of the resolvable galactic binaries will exhibit orbital frequency
evolution, while a smaller number will have measurable eccentricity. In the
Bayesian approach to model selection one needs to compute the Bayes factor
between competing models. Here we explore various methods for computing Bayes
factors in the context of determining which galactic binaries have measurable
frequency evolution. The methods explored include a Reverse Jump Markov Chain
Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) algorithm, Savage-Dickie density ratios, the Schwarz-Bayes
Information Criterion (BIC), and the Laplace approximation to the model
evidence. We find good agreement between all of the approaches.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
Detection Strategies for Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals
The capture of compact stellar remnants by galactic black holes provides a
unique laboratory for exploring the near horizon geometry of the Kerr
spacetime, or possible departures from general relativity if the central cores
prove not to be black holes. The gravitational radiation produced by these
Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs) encodes a detailed map of the black hole
geometry, and the detection and characterization of these signals is a major
scientific goal for the LISA mission. The waveforms produced are very complex,
and the signals need to be coherently tracked for hundreds to thousands of
cycles to produce a detection, making EMRI signals one of the most challenging
data analysis problems in all of gravitational wave astronomy. Estimates for
the number of templates required to perform an exhaustive grid-based
matched-filter search for these signals are astronomically large, and far out
of reach of current computational resources. Here I describe an alternative
approach that employs a hybrid between Genetic Algorithms and Markov Chain
Monte Carlo techniques, along with several time saving techniques for computing
the likelihood function. This approach has proven effective at the blind
extraction of relatively weak EMRI signals from simulated LISA data sets.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Updated for LISA 8 Symposium Proceeding
A Counterexample to Claimed COBE Constraints on Compact Toroidal Universe Models
It has been suggested that if the Universe satisfies a flat, multiply
connected, perturbed Friedmann-Lema^itre model, then cosmic microwave
background data from the COBE satellite implies that the minimum size of the
injectivity diameter (shortest closed spatial geodesic) must be larger than
about two fifths of the horizon diameter. To show that this claim is
misleading, a simple universe model of injectivity diameter a
quarter of this size, i.e. a tenth of the horizon diameter, is shown to be
consistent with COBE four year observational maps of the cosmic microwave
background. This is done using the identified circles principle.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for Classical & Quantum Gravit
On the formation of black holes in non-symmetric gravity
It has been recently suggested that the Non-symmetric Gravitational Theory
(NGT) is free of black holes. Here, we study the linear version of NGT. We find
that even with spherical symmetry the skew part of the metric is generally
non-static. In addition, if the skew field is initially regular, it will remain
regular everywhere and, in particular, at the horizon. Therefore, in the
fully-nonlinear theory, if the initial skew-field is sufficiently small, the
formation of a black hole is to be anticipated.Comment: 9 pages, ordinary LaTex
Pair of accelerated black holes in an anti-de Sitter background: the AdS C-metric
The anti-de Sitter C-metric (AdS C-metric) is characterized by a quite
interesting new feature when compared with the C-metric in flat or de Sitter
backgrounds. Indeed, contrarily to what happens in these two last exact
solutions, the AdS C-metric only describes a pair of accelerated black holes if
the acceleration parameter satisfies A>1/L, where L is the cosmological length.
The two black holes cannot interact gravitationally and their acceleration is
totally provided by the pressure exerted by a strut that pushes the black holes
apart. Our analysis is based on the study of the causal structure, on the
description of the solution in the AdS 4-hyperboloid in a 5D Minkowski
embedding spacetime, and on the physics of the strut. We also analyze the cases
A=1/L and A<1/L that represent a single accelerated black hole in the AdS
background.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures (RevTeX4). Published version: typo in fig. 5
corrected, references adde
Homoclinic chaos in the dynamics of a general Bianchi IX model
The dynamics of a general Bianchi IX model with three scale factors is
examined. The matter content of the model is assumed to be comoving dust plus a
positive cosmological constant. The model presents a critical point of
saddle-center-center type in the finite region of phase space. This critical
point engenders in the phase space dynamics the topology of stable and unstable
four dimensional tubes , where is a saddle direction and
is the manifold of unstable periodic orbits in the center-center sector.
A general characteristic of the dynamical flow is an oscillatory mode about
orbits of an invariant plane of the dynamics which contains the critical point
and a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) singularity. We show that a pair of
tubes (one stable, one unstable) emerging from the neighborhood of the critical
point towards the FRW singularity have homoclinic transversal crossings. The
homoclinic intersection manifold has topology and is constituted
of homoclinic orbits which are bi-asymptotic to the center-center
manifold. This is an invariant signature of chaos in the model, and produces
chaotic sets in phase space. The model also presents an asymptotic DeSitter
attractor at infinity and initial conditions sets are shown to have fractal
basin boundaries connected to the escape into the DeSitter configuration
(escape into inflation), characterizing the critical point as a chaotic
scatterer.Comment: 11 pages, 6 ps figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
The gravitational wave rocket
Einstein's equations admit solutions corresponding to photon rockets. In
these a massive particle recoils because of the anisotropic emission of
photons. In this paper we ask whether rocket motion can be powered only by the
emission of gravitational waves. We use the double series approximation method
and show that this is possible. A loss of mass and gain in momentum arise in
the second approximation because of the emission of quadrupole and octupole
waves.Comment: 10 pages LaTe
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