The equivalence principle, uniformly accelerated reference frames, and the uniform gravitational field

The relationship between uniformly accelerated reference frames in flat spacetime and the uniform gravitational field is examined in a relativistic context. It is shown that, contrary to previous statements in the pages of this journal, equivalence does not break down in this context. No restrictions to Newtonian approximations or small enclosures are necessary

Derivation of the Planck Spectrum for Relativistic Classical Scalar Radiation from Thermal Equilibrium in an Accelerating Frame

The Planck spectrum of thermal scalar radiation is derived suggestively within classical physics by the use of an accelerating coordinate frame. The derivation has an analogue in Boltzmann's derivation of the Maxwell velocity distribution for thermal particle velocities by considering the thermal equilibrium of noninteracting particles in a uniform gravitational field. For the case of radiation, the gravitational field is provided by the acceleration of a Rindler frame through Minkowski spacetime. Classical zero-point radiation and relativistic physics enter in an essential way in the derivation which is based upon the behavior of free radiation fields and the assumption that the field correlation functions contain but a single correlation time in thermal equilibrium. The work has connections with the thermal effects of acceleration found in relativistic quantum field theory.Comment: 23 page

Removing non-stationary, non-harmonic external interference from gravitational wave interferometer data

We describe a procedure to identify and remove a class of non-stationary and non-harmonic interference lines from gravitational wave interferometer data. These lines appear to be associated with the external electricity main supply, but their amplitudes are non-stationary and they do not appear at harmonics of the fundamental supply frequency. We find an empirical model able to represent coherently all the non-harmonic lines we have found in the power spectrum, in terms of an assumed reference signal of the primary supply input signal. If this signal is not available then it can be reconstructed from the same data by making use of the coherent line removal algorithm that we have described elsewhere. All these lines are broadened by frequency changes of the supply signal, and they corrupt significant frequency ranges of the power spectrum. The physical process that generates this interference is so far unknown, but it is highly non-linear and non-stationary. Using our model, we cancel the interference in the time domain by an adaptive procedure that should work regardless of the source of the primary interference. We have applied the method to laser interferometer data from the Glasgow prototype detector, where all the features we describe in this paper were observed. The algorithm has been tuned in such a way that the entire series of wide lines corresponding to the electrical interference are removed, leaving the spectrum clean enough to detect signals previously masked by them. Single-line signals buried in the interference can be recovered with at least 75 % of their original signal amplitude.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Revtex, psfi

Computational Resources to Filter Gravitational Wave Data with P-approximant Templates

The prior knowledge of the gravitational waveform from compact binary systems makes matched filtering an attractive detection strategy. This detection method involves the filtering of the detector output with a set of theoretical waveforms or templates. One of the most important factors in this strategy is knowing how many templates are needed in order to reduce the loss of possible signals. In this study we calculate the number of templates and computational power needed for a one-step search for gravitational waves from inspiralling binary systems. We build on previous works by firstly expanding the post-Newtonian waveforms to 2.5-PN order and secondly, for the first time, calculating the number of templates needed when using P-approximant waveforms. The analysis is carried out for the four main first-generation interferometers, LIGO, GEO600, VIRGO and TAMA. As well as template number, we also calculate the computational cost of generating banks of templates for filtering GW data. We carry out the calculations for two initial conditions. In the first case we assume a minimum individual mass of $1 M_{\odot}$ and in the second, we assume a minimum individual mass of $5 M_{\odot}$. We find that, in general, we need more P-approximant templates to carry out a search than if we use standard PN templates. This increase varies according to the order of PN-approximation, but can be as high as a factor of 3 and is explained by the smaller span of the P-approximant templates as we go to higher masses. The promising outcome is that for 2-PN templates the increase is small and is outweighed by the known robustness of the 2-PN P-approximant templates.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to Class.Quant.Gra

Results of the First Coincident Observations by Two Laser-Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors

We report an upper bound on the strain amplitude of gravitational wave bursts in a waveband from around 800Hz to 1.25kHz. In an effective coincident observing period of 62 hours, the prototype laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors of the University of Glasgow and Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, have set a limit of 4.9E-16, averaging over wave polarizations and incident directions. This is roughly a factor of 2 worse than the theoretical best limit that the detectors could have set, the excess being due to unmodelled non-Gaussian noise. The experiment has demonstrated the viability of the kind of observations planned for the large-scale interferometers that should be on-line in a few years time.Comment: 11 pages, 2 postscript figure

Sound Speeds, Cracking and Stability of Self-Gravitating Anisotropic Compact Objects

Using the the concept of cracking we explore the influence of density fluctuations and local anisotropy have on the stability of local and non-local anisotropic matter configurations in general relativity. This concept, conceived to describe the behaviour of a fluid distribution just after its departure from equilibrium, provides an alternative approach to consider the stability of selfgravitating compact objects. We show that potentially unstable regions within a configuration can be identify as a function of the difference of propagations of sound along tangential and radial directions. In fact, it is found that these regions could occur when, at particular point within the distribution, the tangential speed of sound is greater than radial one.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 4 new references added. typos correcte

Lagrangian perfect fluids and black hole mechanics

The first law of black hole mechanics (in the form derived by Wald), is expressed in terms of integrals over surfaces, at the horizon and spatial infinity, of a stationary, axisymmetric black hole, in a diffeomorphism invariant Lagrangian theory of gravity. The original statement of the first law given by Bardeen, Carter and Hawking for an Einstein-perfect fluid system contained, in addition, volume integrals of the fluid fields, over a spacelike slice stretching between these two surfaces. When applied to the Einstein-perfect fluid system, however, Wald's methods yield restricted results. The reason is that the fluid fields in the Lagrangian of a gravitating perfect fluid are typically nonstationary. We therefore first derive a first law-like relation for an arbitrary Lagrangian metric theory of gravity coupled to arbitrary Lagrangian matter fields, requiring only that the metric field be stationary. This relation includes a volume integral of matter fields over a spacelike slice between the black hole horizon and spatial infinity, and reduces to the first law originally derived by Bardeen, Carter and Hawking when the theory is general relativity coupled to a perfect fluid. We also consider a specific Lagrangian formulation for an isentropic perfect fluid given by Carter, and directly apply Wald's analysis. The resulting first law contains only surface integrals at the black hole horizon and spatial infinity, but this relation is much more restrictive in its allowed fluid configurations and perturbations than that given by Bardeen, Carter and Hawking. In the Appendix, we use the symplectic structure of the Einstein-perfect fluid system to derive a conserved current for perturbations of this system: this current reduces to one derived ab initio for this system by Chandrasekhar and Ferrari.Comment: 26 pages LaTeX-2

Emission patterns of neutral pions in 40 A MeV Ta+Au reactions

Differential cross sections of neutral pions emitted in 181Ta + 197Au collisions at a beam energy of 39.5A MeV have been measured with the photon spectrometer TAPS. The kinetic energy and transverse momentum spectra of neutral pions cannot be properly described in the framework of the thermal model, nor when the reabsorption of pions is accounted for in a phenomenological model. However, high energy and high momentum tails of the pion spectra can be well fitted through thermal distributions with unexpectedly soft temperature parameters below 10 MeV.Comment: 16 pages (double-spaced), 5 figures; corrections after referee's comments and suggestion

The Periodic Standing-Wave Approximation: Overview and Three Dimensional Scalar Models

The periodic standing-wave method for binary inspiral computes the exact numerical solution for periodic binary motion with standing gravitational waves, and uses it as an approximation to slow binary inspiral with outgoing waves. Important features of this method presented here are: (i) the mathematical nature of the ``mixed'' partial differential equations to be solved, (ii) the meaning of standing waves in the method, (iii) computational difficulties, and (iv) the ``effective linearity'' that ultimately justifies the approximation. The method is applied to three dimensional nonlinear scalar model problems, and the numerical results are used to demonstrate extraction of the outgoing solution from the standing-wave solution, and the role of effective linearity.Comment: 13 pages RevTeX, 5 figures. New version. A revised form of the nonlinearity produces better result

Evidence for Thermal Equilibration in Multifragmentation Reactions probed with Bremsstrahlung Photons

The production of nuclear bremsstrahlung photons (E$_{\gamma}>$ 30 MeV) has been studied in inclusive and exclusive measurements in four heavy-ion reactions at 60{\it A} MeV. The measured photon spectra, angular distributions and multiplicities indicate that a significant part of the hard-photons are emitted in secondary nucleon-nucleon collisions from a thermally equilibrated system. The observation of the thermal component in multi-fragment $^{36}$Ar+$^{197}$Au reactions suggests that the breakup of the thermalized source produced in this system occurs on a rather long time-scale.Comment: Revised version, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters. 4 pages, 4 fig