1,378 research outputs found
Optical interferometer in space
The present design concepts for a Laser Gravitational Wave Observatory in Space are described. Laser heterodyne distance measurements are made between test masses located in three spacecraft separated by roughly 10(exp 6) km. The major technology issues are: the reduction of spurious acceleration noise for the test masses to below 2 x 10(exp -15) cm/sq sec/Hz(0.5) from 10(exp -5) to 10(exp -3) Hz; and the measurement of changes in the difference of the antenna arm lengths to 5 x 10(exp -11) cm/Hz(0.5) from 10(exp -3) to 1 Hz with high reliability. The science objectives are: to measure discrete sinusoidal gravitational wave signals from individual sources with periods of 1 second to 1 day; to measure the stochastic background due to unresolved binaries; and to search for gravitational wave pulses with periods longer than 1 sec from possible exotic sources such as gravitational collapse of very massive objects
Estimating the detectable rate of capture of stellar mass black holes by massive central black holes in normal galaxies
The capture and subsequent inspiral of stellar mass black holes on eccentric
orbits by central massive black holes, is one of the more interesting likely
sources of gravitational radiation detectable by LISA. We estimate the rate of
observable events and the associated uncertainties. A moderately favourable
mass function could provide many detectable bursts each year, and a detection
of at least one burst per year is very likely given our current understanding
of the populations in cores of normal spiral galaxies.Comment: 3 pages 2-column revtex Latex macro. No figures. Classical and
Quantum Gravity, accepte
Transient tunneling effects of resonance doublets in triple barrier systems
Transient tunneling effects in triple barrier systems are investigated by
considering a time-dependent solution to the Schr\"{o}dinger equation with a
cutoff wave initial condition. We derive a two-level formula for incidence
energies near the first resonance doublet of the system. Based on that
expression we find that the probability density along the internal region of
the potential, is governed by three oscillation frequencies: one of them refers
to the well known Bohr frequency, given in terms of the first and second
resonance energies of the doublet, and the two others, represent a coupling
with the incidence energy . This allows to manipulate the above frequencies
to control the tunneling transient behavior of the probability density in the
short-time regim
Using binary stars to bound the mass of the graviton
Interacting white dwarf binary star systems, including helium cataclysmic
variable (HeCV) systems, are expected to be strong sources of gravitational
radiation, and should be detectable by proposed space-based laser
interferometer gravitational wave observatories such as LISA. Several HeCV star
systems are presently known and can be studied optically, which will allow
electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations to be correlated.
Comparisons of the phases of a gravitational wave signal and the orbital light
curve from an interacting binary white dwarf star system can be used to bound
the mass of the graviton. Observations of typical HeCV systems by LISA could
potentially yield an upper bound on the inverse mass of the graviton as strong
as km (
eV), more than two orders of magnitude better than present solar system derived
bounds.Comment: 21 pages plus 4 figures; ReVTe
Gravitational Helioseismology?
The magnitudes of the external gravitational perturbations associated with
the normal modes of the Sun are evaluated to determine whether these solar
oscillations could be observed with the proposed Laser Interferometer Space
Antenna (LISA), a network of satellites designed to detect gravitational
radiation. The modes of relevance to LISA---the , low-order , and
-modes---have not been conclusively observed to date. We find that the
energy in these modes must be greater than about in order
to be observable above the LISA detector noise. These mode energies are larger
than generally expected, but are much smaller than the current observational
upper limits. LISA may be confusion-limited at the relevant frequencies due to
the galactic background from short-period white dwarf binaries. Present
estimates of the number of these binaries would require the solar modes to have
energies above about to be observable by LISA.Comment: 8 pages; prepared with REVTEX 3.0 LaTeX macro
An exploration of important factors in the decision-making process undertaken by foundation degree students with respect to level 6 progression
Deciding what degree to study and where are very important decisions to make for a range of practical and economic reasons, and much research has been undertaken in this area. What has not been considered previously is the decision-making processes of students who have completed an associate degree, such as a Higher National Diploma or Foundation Degree, and are now considering where to complete their Bachelor education. Associate degrees are often provided by further education colleges (FECs) in partnership with universities, and the choices available to college-based higher education students are whether to continue at the college or move to university. A mixed-methods approach was adopted comprising of an online questionnaire and subsequent focus groups of students studying at HE at a southwest FEC. The findings showed that equal importance is placed on the practical issues of proximity and familiarity as on course suitability, with the only differences between those remaining at college and those moving to university being financially based
The Gravitational Wave Background from Cosmological Compact Binaries
We use a population synthesis approach to characterise, as a function of
cosmic time, the extragalactic close binary population descended from stars of
low to intermediate initial mass. The unresolved gravitational wave (GW)
background due to these systems is calculated for the 0.1-10 mHz frequency band
of the planned Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). This background is
found to be dominated by emission from close white dwarf-white dwarf pairs. The
spectral shape can be understood in terms of some simple analytic arguments. To
quantify the astrophysical uncertainties, we construct a range of evolutionary
models which produce populations consistent with Galactic observations of close
WD-WD binaries. The models differ in binary evolution prescriptions as well as
initial parameter distributions and cosmic star formation histories. We compare
the resulting background spectra, whose shapes are found to be insensitive to
the model chosen, and different to those found recently by Schneider et al.
(2001). From this set of models, we constrain the amplitude of the
extragalactic background to be 1E-12 < Omega(1 mHz) < 6E-12, in terms of
Omega(f), the fraction of closure density received in gravitational waves in
the logarithmic frequency interval around f.Comment: 20 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Minor
changes, including some additional population synthesis models. Conclusions
and main results unchange
Annual modulation of the Galactic binary confusion noise bakground and LISA data analysis
We study the anisotropies of the Galactic confusion noise background and its
effects on LISA data analysis. LISA has two data streams of the gravitational
waves signals relevant for low frequency regime. Due to the anisotropies of the
background, the matrix for their confusion noises has off-diagonal components
and depends strongly on the orientation of the detector plane. We find that the
sky-averaged confusion noise level could change by a factor of 2
in three months, and would be minimum when the orbital position of LISA is
either around the spring or autumn equinox.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure
Algebraic approach to time-delay data analysis for LISA
Cancellation of laser frequency noise in interferometers is crucial for
attaining the requisite sensitivity of the triangular 3-spacecraft LISA
configuration. Raw laser noise is several orders of magnitude above the other
noises and thus it is essential to bring it down to the level of other noises
such as shot, acceleration, etc. Since it is impossible to maintain equal
distances between spacecrafts, laser noise cancellation must be achieved by
appropriately combining the six beams with appropriate time-delays. It has been
shown in several recent papers that such combinations are possible. In this
paper, we present a rigorous and systematic formalism based on algebraic
geometrical methods involving computational commutative algebra, which
generates in principle {\it all} the data combinations cancelling the laser
frequency noise. The relevant data combinations form the first module of
syzygies, as it is called in the literature of algebraic geometry. The module
is over a polynomial ring in three variables, the three variables corresponding
to the three time-delays around the LISA triangle. Specifically, we list
several sets of generators for the module whose linear combinations with
polynomial coefficients generate the entire module. We find that this formalism
can also be extended in a straight forward way to cancel Doppler shifts due to
optical bench motions. The two modules are infact isomorphic.
We use our formalism to obtain the transfer functions for the six beams and
for the generators. We specifically investigate monochromatic gravitational
wave sources in the LISA band and carry out the maximisiation over linear
combinations of the generators of the signal-to-noise ratios with the frequency
and source direction angles as parameters.Comment: 27 Pages, 6 figure
The Transition from Inspiral to Plunge for a Compact Body in a Circular Equatorial Orbit Around a Massive, Spinning Black Hole
There are three regimes of gravitational-radiation-reaction-induced inspiral
for a compact body with mass mu, in a circular, equatorial orbit around a Kerr
black hole with mass M>>mu: (i) The "adiabatic inspiral regime", in which the
body gradually descends through a sequence of circular, geodesic orbits. (ii) A
"transition regime", near the innermost stable circular orbit (isco). (iii) The
"plunge regime", in which the body travels on a geodesic from slightly below
the isco into the hole's horizon. This paper gives an analytic treatment of the
transition regime and shows that, with some luck, gravitational waves from the
transition might be measurable by the space-based LISA mission.Comment: 8 Pages and 3 Figures; RevTeX; submitted to Physical Review
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