Synthesis and characterization of arsenate-intercalated layered double hydroxides (LDHs): Prospects for arsenic mineralization

The arsenate-intercalated layered double hydroxide (LDH) of Mg and Al is synthesized by coprecipitation. The higher thermodynamic stability and the consequent lower solubility of the unitary arsenates preclude the formation of arsenate-intercalated LDHs of other metals directly from solution. However other M/Al-AsO4 (M = Co, Ni, Zn) LDHs could be prepared by anion exchange, showing that arsenate intercalation proceeds topotactically. The intercalation of various species of As(V) into the interlayer of LDHs and the subsequent arsenate carrying capacity are dependent upon the pH of the solution. Upon thermal decomposition, the intercalated arsenate ion undergoes reductive deintercalation to give a mixture of As(III) and As(V) oxides. The product oxides revert back to the LDH upon soaking in water on account of the compositional and morphological metastability of the former. This is in contrast with the phosphate-intercalated LDHs, in which the reversibility is suppressed, consequent to the formation of stable metal phosphates. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Layered double hydroxides as potential chromate scavengers

The LDH of Ni with Fe, having the formula Ni1-xFex(OH)2(An-)x/nṡyH2O (A = NO- 3, Cl-; x = 0.25, 0.33), scavenges CrO2- 4 ions from solution throughout the concentration range examined (0.00625-0.25 N). The CrO2- 4 uptake capacity is independent of the anion in the starting LDH but is higher when x = 0.25 (3.60 meq g-1) as compared to x = 0.33 (2.40 meq g-1). These values are higher than those observed for control compounds β-Ni(OH)2 (1.86 meq g-1) and FeO(OH) (1.26 meq g-1), which do not have any interlayer chemistry, showing that chromate uptake takes place by its incorporation in the interlayer region by a stoichiometric anion-exchange reaction, rather than by adsorption. Nevertheless, the interaction between the LDH and the chromate ions is weak. The weak interaction is due to the mismatch between the symmetry of the chromate ions and the symmetry of the interlayer site, which introduces turbostratic disorder in the chromate-intercalated LDHs. The chromate ions can be completely leached out by soaking the LDH in a sodium carbonate solution. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Interlayer structure of iodide intercalated layered double hydroxides (LDHs)

The iodide-containing layered double hydroxides (LDHs) of Mg and Zn with Al crystallize by the inclusion of extensive positional disorder of I- ions in the interlayer region. I- ion given its poor charge to size ratio can neither screen effectively the positive charge nor participate in H-bonding with the metal hydroxide layers. Thereby the I- ions are not stabilized in sites close to the seat of positive charge of the metal hydroxide layers (6c), nor in sites that facilitate H-bonding (3b or 18h). On the other hand, OH- from water can do both and effectively displaces I- from the interlayer. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Particle Motion and Electromagnetic Fields of Rotating Compact Gravitating Objects with Gravitomagnetic Charge

The exact solution for the electromagnetic field occuring when the Kerr-Taub-NUT compact object is immersed (i) in an originally uniform magnetic field aligned along the axis of axial symmetry (ii) in dipolar magnetic field generated by current loop has been investigated. Effective potential of motion of charged test particle around Kerr-Taub-NUT gravitational source immersed in magnetic field with different values of external magnetic field and NUT parameter has been also investigated. In both cases presence of NUT parameter and magnetic field shifts stable circular orbits in the direction of the central gravitating object. Finally we find analytical solutions of Maxwell equations in the external background spacetime of a slowly rotating magnetized NUT star. The star is considered isolated and in vacuum, with monopolar configuration model for the stellar magnetic field.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, new results in section 2 added, section 3 is revised, 3 references are adde

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society

Erratum: "A Gravitational-wave Measurement of the Hubble Constant Following the Second Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo" (2021, ApJ, 909, 218)

[no abstract available

Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3b

We search for gravitational-wave signals associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Fermi and Swift satellites during the second half of the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo (2019 November 1 15:00 UTC-2020 March 27 17:00 UTC). We conduct two independent searches: A generic gravitational-wave transients search to analyze 86 GRBs and an analysis to target binary mergers with at least one neutron star as short GRB progenitors for 17 events. We find no significant evidence for gravitational-wave signals associated with any of these GRBs. A weighted binomial test of the combined results finds no evidence for subthreshold gravitational-wave signals associated with this GRB ensemble either. We use several source types and signal morphologies during the searches, resulting in lower bounds on the estimated distance to each GRB. Finally, we constrain the population of low-luminosity short GRBs using results from the first to the third observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo. The resulting population is in accordance with the local binary neutron star merger rate. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run

Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

GW190814: gravitational waves from the coalescence of a 23 solar mass black hole with a 2.6 solar mass compact object

We report the observation of a compact binary coalescence involving a 22.2–24.3 Me black hole and a compact object with a mass of 2.50–2.67 Me (all measurements quoted at the 90% credible level). The gravitational-wave signal, GW190814, was observed during LIGO’s and Virgo’s third observing run on 2019 August 14 at 21:10:39 UTC and has a signal-to-noise ratio of 25 in the three-detector network. The source was localized to 18.5 deg2 at a distance of - + 241 45 41 Mpc; no electromagnetic counterpart has been confirmed to date. The source has the most unequal mass ratio yet measured with gravitational waves, - + 0.112 0.009 0.008, and its secondary component is either the lightest black hole or the heaviest neutron star ever discovered in a double compact-object system. The dimensionless spin of the primary black hole is tightly constrained to �0.07. Tests of general relativity reveal no measurable deviations from the theory, and its prediction of higher-multipole emission is confirmed at high confidence. We estimate a merger rate density of 1–23 Gpc−3 yr−1 for the new class of binary coalescence sources that GW190814 represents. Astrophysical models predict that binaries with mass ratios similar to this event can form through several channels, but are unlikely to have formed in globular clusters. However, the combination of mass ratio, component masses, and the inferred merger rate for this event challenges all current models of the formation and mass distribution of compact-object binaries

Search for gravitational-wave transients associated with magnetar bursts in advanced LIGO and advanced Virgo data from the third observing run

Gravitational waves are expected to be produced from neutron star oscillations associated with magnetar giant f lares and short bursts. We present the results of a search for short-duration (milliseconds to seconds) and longduration (∼100 s) transient gravitational waves from 13 magnetar short bursts observed during Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo, and KAGRA’s third observation run. These 13 bursts come from two magnetars, SGR1935 +2154 and SwiftJ1818.0−1607. We also include three other electromagnetic burst events detected by FermiGBM which were identified as likely coming from one or more magnetars, but they have no association with a known magnetar. No magnetar giant flares were detected during the analysis period. We find no evidence of gravitational waves associated with any of these 16 bursts. We place upper limits on the rms of the integrated incident gravitational-wave strain that reach 3.6 × 10−²³ Hz at 100 Hz for the short-duration search and 1.1 ×10−²² Hz at 450 Hz for the long-duration search. For a ringdown signal at 1590 Hz targeted by the short-duration search the limit is set to 2.3 × 10−²² Hz. Using the estimated distance to each magnetar, we derive upper limits upper limits on the emitted gravitational-wave energy of 1.5 × 1044 erg (1.0 × 1044 erg) for SGR 1935+2154 and 9.4 × 10^43 erg (1.3 × 1044 erg) for Swift J1818.0−1607, for the short-duration (long-duration) search. Assuming isotropic emission of electromagnetic radiation of the burst fluences, we constrain the ratio of gravitational-wave energy to electromagnetic energy for bursts from SGR 1935+2154 with the available fluence information. The lowest of these ratios is 4.5 × 103