1,561 research outputs found
Precession during merger 1: Strong polarization changes are observationally accessible features of strong-field gravity during binary black hole merger
The short gravitational wave signal from the merger of compact binaries
encodes a surprising amount of information about the strong-field dynamics of
merger into frequencies accessible to ground-based interferometers. In this
paper we describe a previously-unknown "precession" of the peak emission
direction with time, both before and after the merger, about the total angular
momentum direction. We demonstrate the gravitational wave polarization encodes
the orientation of this direction to the line of sight. We argue the effects of
polarization can be estimated nonparametrically, directly from the
gravitational wave signal as seen along one line of sight, as a slowly-varying
feature on top of a rapidly-varying carrier. After merger, our results can be
interpreted as a coherent excitation of quasinormal modes of different angular
orders, a superposition which naturally "precesses" and modulates the
line-of-sight amplitude. Recent analytic calculations have arrived at a similar
geometric interpretation. We suspect the line-of-sight polarization content
will be a convenient observable with which to define new high-precision tests
of general relativity using gravitational waves. Additionally, as the nonlinear
merger process seeds the initial coherent perturbation, we speculate the
amplitude of this effect provides a new probe of the strong-field dynamics
during merger. To demonstrate the ubiquity of the effects we describe, we
summarize the post-merger evolution of 104 generic precessing binary mergers.
Finally, we provide estimates for the detectable impacts of precession on the
waveforms from high-mass sources. These expressions may identify new precessing
binary parameters whose waveforms are dissimilar from the existing sample.Comment: 11 figures; v2 includes response to referee suggestion
Blindly detecting orbital modulations of jets from merging supermassive black holes
In the last few years before merger, supermassive black hole binaries will
rapidly inspiral and precess in a magnetic field imposed by a surrounding
circumbinary disk. Multiple simulations suggest this relative motion will
convert some of the local energy to a Poynting-dominated outflow, with a
luminosity 10^{43} erg/s * (B/10^4 G)^2(M/10^8 Msun)^2 (v/0.4 c)^2, some of
which may emerge as synchrotron emission at frequencies near 1 GHz where
current and planned wide-field radio surveys will operate. On top of a secular
increase in power on the gravitational wave inspiral timescale, orbital motion
will produce significant, detectable modulations, both on orbital periods and
(if black hole spins are not aligned with the binary's total angular momenta)
spin-orbit precession timescales. Because the gravitational wave merger time
increases rapidly with separation, we find vast numbers of these transients are
ubiquitously predicted, unless explicitly ruled out (by low efficiency
) or obscured (by accretion geometry f_{geo}). If the fraction of
Poynting flux converted to radio emission times the fraction of lines of sight
accessible is sufficiently large (f_{geo} \epsilon > 2\times 10^{-4}
for a 1 year orbital period), at least one event is accessible to future blind
surveys at a nominal 10^4 {deg}^2 with 0.5 mJy sensitivity. Our procedure
generalizes to other flux-limited surveys designed to investigate EM signatures
associated with many modulations produced by merging SMBH binaries.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. v1 original submission; v2 minor changes in
response to refere
Reactions at Polymer Interfaces: Transitions from Chemical to Diffusion-Control and Mixed Order Kinetics
We study reactions between end-functionalized chains at a polymer-polymer
interface. For small chemical reactivities (the typical case) the number of
diblocks formed, , obeys 2nd order chemically controlled kinetics, , until interfacial saturation. For high reactivities (e.g. radicals) a
transition occurs at short times to 2nd order diffusion-controlled kinetics,
with for unentangled chains while and
regimes occur for entangled chains. Long time kinetics are 1st order and
controlled by diffusion of the more dilute species to the interface: for unentangled cases, while and regimes
arise for entangled systems. The final 1st order regime is governed by center
of gravity diffusion, .Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, uses poliface.sty, minor changes, to appear in
Europhysics Letter
Observing IMBH-IMBH Binary Coalescences via Gravitational Radiation
Recent numerical simulations have suggested the possibility of forming double
intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs) via the collisional runaway scenario in
young dense star clusters. The two IMBHs formed would exchange into a common
binary shortly after their birth, and quickly inspiral and merge. Since
space-borne gravitational wave (GW) observatories such as LISA will be able to
see the late phases of their inspiral out to several Gpc, and LIGO will be able
to see the merger and ringdown out to similar distances, they represent
potentially significant GW sources. In this Letter we estimate the rate at
which LISA and LIGO will see their inspiral and merger in young star clusters,
and discuss the information that can be extracted from the observations. We
find that LISA will likely see tens of IMBH--IMBH inspirals per year, while
advanced LIGO could see ~10 merger and ringdown events per year, with both
rates strongly dependent on the distribution of cluster masses and densities.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL. Minor changes to reflect accepted
version. 4 pages in emulateapj, 3 figure
Kinetic Regimes and Cross-Over Times in Many-Particle Reacting Systems
We study kinetics of single species reactions ("A+A -> 0") for general local
reactivity Q and dynamical exponent z (rms displacement x_t ~ t^{1/z}.) For
small molecules z=2, whilst z=4,8 for certain polymer systems. For dimensions d
above the critical value d_c=z, kinetics are always mean field (MF). Below d_c,
the density n_t initially follows MF decay, n_0 - n_t ~ n_0^2 Q t. A 2-body
diffusion-controlled regime follows for strongly reactive systems (Q>Qstar ~
n_0^{(z-d)/d}) with n_0 - n_t ~ n_0^2 x_t^d. For Q<Qstar, MF kinetics persist,
with n_t ~ 1/Qt. In all cases n_t ~ 1/x_t^d at the longest times. Our analysis
avoids decoupling approximations by instead postulating weak physically
motivated bounds on correlation functions.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, uses bulk2.sty, minor changes, submitted to
Europhysics Letter
Herd health status and management practices on 16 Irish suckler beef farms
peer-reviewedBackground: There have been few studies published internationally which document herd health management practices in suckler beef herds and no published Irish studies. The study objective was to document herd health status and management practices on sixteen Irish suckler beef herds over a two year period (2009–2010). The farms used in the study were part of the Teagasc BETTER farm beef programme. The mean (s.d.) herd size, stocking rate and farm size was 68 cows (27.6), 2.0 LU/ha (0.3) and 64.3 (21.6) adjusted hectares, respectively. Two questionnaires were designed; 1) a farmer questionnaire to collect information on farm background and current herd health control practices and 2) a veterinary questionnaire to collect information on the extent of animal health advice given by veterinarians to their clients and identification of any on-farm herd health issues.
Results: Dystocia, calf pneumonia, and calf diarrhoea, in that order, were identified as the primary herd health issues in these Irish suckler beef herds. In addition, substantial deficiencies in biosecurity practices were also identified on these farms.
Conclusions: The findings of this study may serve as the focus for future research in animal health management practices in Irish suckler beef herds
The Slowly Formed Guiselin Brush
We study polymer layers formed by irreversible adsorption from a polymer
melt. Our theory describes an experiment which is a ``slow'' version of that
proposed by Guiselin [Europhys. Lett., v. 17 (1992) p. 225] who considered
instantaneously irreversibly adsorbing chains and predicted a universal density
profile of the layer after swelling with solvent to produce the ``Guiselin
brush.'' Here we ask what happens when adsorption is not instantaneous. The
classic example is chemisorption. In this case the brush is formed slowly and
the final structure depends on the experiment's duration, . We find
the swollen layer consists of an inner region of thickness with approximately constant density and an outer region
extending up to height which has the same density decay as for the Guiselin case.Comment: 7 pages, submitted to Europhysics Letter
Nematode control in suckler beef cattle over their first two grazing seasons using a targeted selective treatment approach
peer-reviewedBackground
With concerns over the development of anthelmintic resistance in cattle nematode populations, we must re-examine our approach to nematode control in cattle. Targeted selective treatments (TST), whereby individual animals are treated instead of entire groups, are being investigated as an alternative. The study objective was to determine if anthelmintic usage could be reduced using a TST-based approach to nematode control in spring-born suckler beef cattle over their first and second grazing seasons (SGS) without affecting performance. In the first grazing season (FGS), 99 calves with an initial mean (s.d.) calf age and live weight on day 0 (June 28th 2012) of 107 (23.1) days and 160 (32.5) kg, respectively, were used. The study commenced on day 0 when calves were randomised and allocated to one of two treatments; 1), standard treatment (control) and 2), TST. Control calves were treated subcutaneously with ivermectin on days 0, 41 and 82 in the FGS. All calves were treated with ivermectin on day 124 and housed on day 133. In the SGS, only heifer calves from the FGS were used and control heifers were treated with ivermectin on day 393. Animals were weighed, blood and faecal sampled every three weeks. The TST animals were treated with ivermectin if thresholds based on a combination of plasma pepsinogen concentrations, faecal egg count and/or the presence of Dictyocaulus viviparus larvae in faeces (FGS only) were reached.
Results
No TST calves reached the treatment threshold criteria in the FGS. The FGS average daily live weight gain (ADG ± s.e.m.) for control and TST group calves was 0.89 ± 0.02 kg and 0.94 ± 0.02 kg day−1, respectively (P = 0.17). In the SGS, all heifers were treated with ivermectin on day 431 due to clinical signs of respiratory disease. The ADG for control and TST heifers from turnout on day 321 to day 431 was 0.90 ± 0.04 and 0.80 ± 0.04 kg day−1, respectively (P = 0.03).
Conclusions
Spring-born FGS suckler beef calves require minimal anthelmintic treatment to maintain performance. In contrast, clinical parasitic disease may develop in the SGS unless appropriate anthelmintic treatment is provided
Is J enough? Comparison of gravitational waves emitted along the total angular momentum direction with other preferred orientations
The gravitational wave signature emitted from a merging binary depends on the
orientation of an observer relative to the binary. Previous studies suggest
that emission along the total initial or total final angular momenta leads to
both the strongest and simplest signal from a precessing compact binary. In
this paper we describe a concrete counterexample: a binary with ,
, placed in orbit in the x,y plane. We extract the
gravitational wave emission along several proposed emission directions,
including the initial (Newtonian) orbital angular momentum; the final (~
initial) total angular momentum; and the dominant principal axis of . Using several diagnostics, we show that the suggested preferred
directions are not representative. For example, only for a handful of other
directions (< 15%) will the gravitational wave signal have comparable shape to
the one extracted along each of these fiducial directions, as measured by a
generalized overlap (>0.95). We conclude that the information available in just
one direction (or mode) does not adequately encode the complexity of
orientation-dependent emission for even short signals from merging black hole
binaries. Future investigations of precessing, unequal-mass binaries should
carefully explore and model their orientation-dependent emission.Comment: v2 errat
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