113 research outputs found
Gravitational-wave astronomy: the high-frequency window
This contribution is divided in two parts. The first part provides a
text-book level introduction to gravitational radiation. The key concepts
required for a discussion of gravitational-wave physics are introduced. In
particular, the quadrupole formula is applied to the anticipated
``bread-and-butter'' source for detectors like LIGO, GEO600, EGO and TAMA300:
inspiralling compact binaries. The second part provides a brief review of high
frequency gravitational waves. In the frequency range above (say) 100Hz,
gravitational collapse, rotational instabilities and oscillations of the
remnant compact objects are potentially important sources of gravitational
waves. Significant and unique information concerning the various stages of
collapse, the evolution of protoneutron stars and the details of the
supranuclear equation of state of such objects can be drawn from careful study
of the gravitational-wave signal. As the amount of exciting physics one may be
able to study via the detections of gravitational waves from these sources is
truly inspiring, there is strong motivation for the development of future
generations of ground based detectors sensitive in the range from hundreds of
Hz to several kHz.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, Lectures presented at the 2nd Aegean Summer
School on the Early Universe, Syros, Greece, September 200
Core-Collapse Supernovae at the Threshold
Recent progress in modeling core-collapse supernovae is summarized and set in
perspective. Two-dimensional simulations with state-of-the-art treatment of
neutrino transport still fail to produce powerful explosions, but evidence is
presented that they are very close to success.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, high-quality available upon request; contribution
to Procs. IAU Coll. 192, "Supernovae", Eds. J.M. Marcaide ad K.W. Weiler,
Springe
Consequences of Giant Impacts on Early Uranus for Rotation, Internal Structure, Debris, and Atmospheric Erosion
We perform a suite of smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations to investigate in detail the results of a giant impact on the young Uranus. We study the internal structure, rotation rate, and atmospheric retention of the post-impact planet, as well as the composition of material ejected into orbit. Most of the material from the impactor's rocky core falls in to the core of the target. However, for higher angular momentum impacts, significant amounts become embedded anisotropically as lumps in the ice layer. Furthermore, most of the impactor's ice and energy is deposited in a hot, high-entropy shell at a radius of ~3 R â. This could explain Uranus' observed lack of heat flow from the interior and be relevant for understanding its asymmetric magnetic field. We verify the results from the single previous study of lower resolution simulations that an impactor with a mass of at least 2 M â can produce sufficiently rapid rotation in the post-impact Uranus for a range of angular momenta. At least 90% of the atmosphere remains bound to the final planet after the collision, but over half can be ejected beyond the Roche radius by a 2 or 3 M â impactor. This atmospheric erosion peaks for intermediate impactor angular momenta (~3 Ă 1036 kg m2 sâ1). Rock is more efficiently placed into orbit and made available for satellite formation by 2 M â impactors than 3 M â ones, because it requires tidal disruption that is suppressed by the more massive impactors
Supernova Neutrinos, Neutrino Oscillations, and the Mass of the Progenitor Star
We investigate the initial progenitor mass dependence of the early-phase
neutrino signal from supernovae taking neutrino oscillations into account. The
early-phase analysis has advantages in that it is not affected by the time
evolution of the density structure of the star due to shock propagation or
whether the remnant is a neutron star or a black hole. The initial mass affects
the evolution of the massive star and its presupernova structure, which is
important for two reasons when considering the neutrino signal. First, the
density profile of the mantle affects the dynamics of neutrino oscillation in
supernova. Second, the final iron core structure determines the features of the
neutrino burst, i.e., the luminosity and the average energy. We find that both
effects are rather small. This is desirable when we try to extract information
on neutrino parameters from future supernova-neutrino observations. Although
the uncertainty due to the progenitor mass is not small for intermediate
(), we
can, nevertheless, determine the character of the mass hierarchy and whether
is very large or very small.Comment: 8 pages, 15 figure
Time-frequency detection algorithm for gravitational wave bursts
An efficient algorithm is presented for the identification of short bursts of
gravitational radiation in the data from broad-band interferometric detectors.
The algorithm consists of three steps: pixels of the time-frequency
representation of the data that have power above a fixed threshold are first
identified. Clusters of such pixels that conform to a set of rules on their
size and their proximity to other clusters are formed, and a final threshold is
applied on the power integrated over all pixels in such clusters. Formal
arguments are given to support the conjecture that this algorithm is very
efficient for a wide class of signals. A precise model for the false alarm rate
of this algorithm is presented, and it is shown using a number of
representative numerical simulations to be accurate at the 1% level for most
values of the parameters, with maximal error around 10%.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, to appear in PR
Enhancing gravitational wave astronomy with galaxy catalogues
Joint gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) observations, as a key
research direction in multi-messenger astronomy, will provide deep insight into
the astrophysics of a vast range of astronomical phenomena. Uncertainties in
the source sky location estimate from gravitational wave observations mean
follow-up observatories must scan large portions of the sky for a potential
companion signal. A general frame of joint GW-EM observations is presented by a
multi-messenger observational triangle. Using a Bayesian approach to
multi-messenger astronomy, we investigate the use of galaxy catalogue and host
galaxy information to reduce the sky region over which follow-up observatories
must scan, as well as study its use for improving the inclination angle
estimates for coalescing binary compact objects. We demonstrate our method
using a simulated neutron stars inspiral signal injected into simulated
Advanced detectors noise and estimate the injected signal sky location and
inclination angle using the Gravitational Wave Galaxy Catalogue. In this case
study, the top three candidates in rank have , and posterior
probability of being the host galaxy, receptively. The standard deviation of
cosine inclination angle (0.001) of the neutron stars binary using
gravitational wave-galaxy information is much smaller than that (0.02) using
only gravitational wave posterior samples.Comment: Proceedings of the Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics. 2014 Session on
'Gravitational Wave Astrophysics
Short Gamma Ray Bursts as possible electromagnetic counterpart of coalescing binary systems
Coalescing binary systems, consisting of two collapsed objects, are among the
most promising sources of high frequency gravitational waves signals
detectable, in principle, by ground-based interferometers. Binary systems of
Neutron Star or Black Hole/Neutron Star mergers should also give rise to short
Gamma Ray Bursts, a subclass of Gamma Ray Bursts. Short-hard-Gamma Ray Bursts
might thus provide a powerful way to infer the merger rate of two-collapsed
object binaries. Under the hypothesis that most short Gamma Ray Bursts
originate from binaries of Neutron Star or Black Hole/Neutron Star mergers, we
outline here the possibility to associate short Gamma Ray Bursts as
electromagnetic counterpart of coalescing binary systems.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur
Magnetohydrodynamics and Plasma Cosmology
We study the linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations, both in the
Newtonian and the general-relativistic limit, as regards a viscous magnetized
fluid of finite conductivity and discuss instability criteria. In addition, we
explore the excitation of cosmological perturbations in anisotropic spacetimes,
in the presence of an ambient magnetic field. Acoustic, electromagnetic (e/m)
and fast-magnetosonic modes, propagating normal to the magnetic field, can be
excited, resulting in several implications of cosmological significance.Comment: 9 pages, RevTeX, To appear in the Proceedings of the Peyresq X
Meeting, IJTP Conference Serie
Potential for Supernova Neutrino Detection in MiniBooNE
The MiniBooNE detector at Fermilab is designed to search for oscillation appearance at and to make a
decisive test of the LSND signal. The main detector (inside a veto shield) is a
spherical volume containing 0.680 ktons of mineral oil. This inner volume,
viewed by 1280 phototubes, is primarily a \v{C}erenkov medium, as the
scintillation yield is low. The entire detector is under a 3 m earth
overburden. Though the detector is not optimized for low-energy (tens of MeV)
events, and the cosmic-ray muon rate is high (10 kHz), we show that MiniBooNE
can function as a useful supernova neutrino detector. Simple trigger-level cuts
can greatly reduce the backgrounds due to cosmic-ray muons. For a canonical
Galactic supernova at 10 kpc, about 190 supernova
events would be detected. By adding MiniBooNE to the international network of
supernova detectors, the possibility of a supernova being missed would be
reduced. Additionally, the paths of the supernova neutrinos through Earth will
be different for MiniBooNE and other detectors, thus allowing tests of
matter-affected mixing effects on the neutrino signal.Comment: Added references, version to appear in PR
Relativistic Mass Ejecta from Phase-transition-induced Collapse of Neutron Stars
We study the dynamical evolution of a phase-transition-induced collapse
neutron star to a hybrid star, which consists of a mixture of hadronic matter
and strange quark matter. The collapse is triggered by a sudden change of
equation of state, which result in a large amplitude stellar oscillation. The
evolution of the system is simulated by using a 3D Newtonian hydrodynamic code
with a high resolution shock capture scheme. We find that both the temperature
and the density at the neutrinosphere are oscillating with acoustic frequency.
However, they are nearly 180 out of phase. Consequently, extremely
intense, pulsating neutrino/antineutrino fluxes will be emitted periodically.
Since the energy and density of neutrinos at the peaks of the pulsating fluxes
are much higher than the non-oscillating case, the electron/positron pair
creation rate can be enhanced dramatically. Some mass layers on the stellar
surface can be ejected by absorbing energy of neutrinos and pairs. These mass
ejecta can be further accelerated to relativistic speeds by absorbing
electron/positron pairs, created by the neutrino and antineutrino annihilation
outside the stellar surface. The possible connection between this process and
the cosmological Gamma-ray Bursts is discussed.Comment: 40 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in JCA
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