35 research outputs found
Nano-constraints on the spatial anisotropy of the Gravitational Constant
We present constraints from various experimental data that limit any spatial
anisotropy of the Gravitational constant to less than a part per billion or
even smaller. This rules out with a wide margin the recently reported claim of
a spatial anisotropy of G with a diurnal temporal signature.Comment: Standard LaTex, 7 page
Radiative falloff in Einstein-Straus spacetime
The Einstein-Straus spacetime describes a nonrotating black hole immersed in
a matter-dominated cosmology. It is constructed by scooping out a spherical
ball of the dust and replacing it with a vacuum region containing a black hole
of the same mass. The metric is smooth at the boundary, which is comoving with
the rest of the universe. We study the evolution of a massless scalar field in
the Einstein-Straus spacetime, with a special emphasis on its late-time
behavior. This is done by numerically integrating the scalar wave equation in a
double-null coordinate system that covers both portions (vacuum and dust) of
the spacetime. We show that the field's evolution is governed mostly by the
strong concentration of curvature near the black hole, and the discontinuity in
the dust's mass density at the boundary; these give rise to a rather complex
behavior at late times. Contrary to what it would do in an asymptotically-flat
spacetime, the field does not decay in time according to an inverse power-law.Comment: ReVTeX, 12 pages, 14 figure
Scalar wave propagation in topological black hole backgrounds
We consider the evolution of a scalar field coupled to curvature in
topological black hole spacetimes. We solve numerically the scalar wave
equation with different curvature-coupling constant and show that a rich
spectrum of wave propagation is revealed when is introduced. Relations
between quasinormal modes and the size of different topological black holes
have also been investigated.Comment: 26 pages, 18 figure
Late-Time Tails of Wave Propagation in Higher Dimensional Spacetimes
We study the late-time tails appearing in the propagation of massless fields
(scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational) in the vicinities of a
D-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole. We find that at late times the fields
always exhibit a power-law falloff, but the power-law is highly sensitive to
the dimensionality of the spacetime. Accordingly, for odd D>3 we find that the
field behaves as t^[-(2l+D-2)] at late times, where l is the angular index
determining the angular dependence of the field. This behavior is entirely due
to D being odd, it does not depend on the presence of a black hole in the
spacetime. Indeed this tails is already present in the flat space Green's
function. On the other hand, for even D>4 the field decays as t^[-(2l+3D-8)],
and this time there is no contribution from the flat background. This power-law
is entirely due to the presence of the black hole. The D=4 case is special and
exhibits, as is well known, the t^[-(2l+3)] behavior. In the extra dimensional
scenario for our Universe, our results are strictly correct if the extra
dimensions are infinite, but also give a good description of the late time
behaviour of any field if the large extra dimensions are large enough.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX4. Version to appear in Rapid
Communications of Physical Review
Numerical simulation of the massive scalar field evolution in the Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole background
We studied the massive scalar wave propagation in the background of
Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m black hole by using numerical simulations. We learned
that the value plays an important role in determining the properties of
the relaxation of the perturbation. For the relaxation process
depends only on the field parameter and does not depend on the spacetime
parameters. For , the dependence of the relaxation on the black hole
parameters appears. The bigger mass of the black hole, the faster the
perturbation decays. The difference of the relaxation process caused by the
black hole charge has also been exhibited.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
The Uncertainty in Newton's Constant and Precision Predictions of the Primordial Helium Abundance
The current uncertainty in Newton's constant, G_N, is of the order of 0.15%.
For values of the baryon to photon ratio consistent with both cosmic microwave
background observations and the primordial deuterium abundance, this
uncertainty in G_N corresponds to an uncertainty in the primordial 4He mass
fraction, Y_P, of +-1.3 x 10^{-4}. This uncertainty in Y_P is comparable to the
effect from the current uncertainty in the neutron lifetime, which is often
treated as the dominant uncertainty in calculations of Y_P. Recent measurements
of G_N seem to be converging within a smaller range; a reduction in the
estimated error on G_N by a factor of 10 would essentially eliminate it as a
source of uncertainty in the calculation of the primordial 4He abundance.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, fixed typos, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Radiative falloff of a scalar field in a weakly curved spacetime without symmetries
We consider a massless scalar field propagating in a weakly curved spacetime
whose metric is a solution to the linearized Einstein field equations. The
spacetime is assumed to be stationary and asymptotically flat, but no other
symmetries are imposed -- the spacetime can rotate and deviate strongly from
spherical symmetry. We prove that the late-time behavior of the scalar field is
identical to what it would be in a spherically-symmetric spacetime: it decays
in time according to an inverse power-law, with a power determined by the
angular profile of the initial wave packet (Price falloff theorem). The field's
late-time dynamics is insensitive to the nonspherical aspects of the metric,
and it is governed entirely by the spacetime's total gravitational mass; other
multipole moments, and in particular the spacetime's total angular momentum, do
not enter in the description of the field's late-time behavior. This extended
formulation of Price's falloff theorem appears to be at odds with previous
studies of radiative decay in the spacetime of a Kerr black hole. We show,
however, that the contradiction is only apparent, and that it is largely an
artifact of the Boyer-Lindquist coordinates adopted in these studies.Comment: 17 pages, RevTeX