901 research outputs found
Critical phenomena at the threshold of black hole formation for collisionless matter in spherical symmetry
We perform a numerical study of the critical regime at the threshold of black
hole formation in the spherically symmetric, general relativistic collapse of
collisionless matter. The coupled Einstein-Vlasov equations are solved using a
particle-mesh method in which the evolution of the phase-space distribution
function is approximated by a set of particles (or, more precisely,
infinitesimally thin shells) moving along geodesics of the spacetime.
Individual particles may have non-zero angular momenta, but spherical symmetry
dictates that the total angular momentum of the matter distribution vanish. In
accord with previous work by Rein et al, our results indicate that the critical
behavior in this model is Type I; that is, the smallest black hole in each
parametrized family has a finite mass. We present evidence that the critical
solutions are characterized by unstable, static spacetimes, with non-trivial
distributions of radial momenta for the particles. As expected for Type I
solutions, we also find power-law scaling relations for the lifetimes of
near-critical configurations as a function of parameter-space distance from
criticality.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figure
Relativistic dynamics of cylindrical shells of counter-rotating particles
Although infinite cylinders are not astrophysical entities, it is possible to
learn a great deal about the basic qualitative features of generation of
gravitational waves and the behavior of the matter conforming such shells in
the limits of very small radius. We describe the analytical model using kinetic
theory for the matter and the junction conditions through the shell to obtain
its equation of motion. The nature of the static solutions are analyzed, both
for a single shell as well as for two concentric shells. In this second case,
for a time dependent external shell, we integrate numerically the equation of
motion for several values of the constants of the system. Also, a brief
description in terms of the Komar mass is given to account for the
gravitational wave energy emitted by the system.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figure
Matter-induced vertices for photon splitting in a weakly magnetized plasma
We evaluate the three-photon vertex functions at order and in a
weak constant magnetic field at finite temperature and density with on shell
external lines. Their application to the study of the photon splitting process
leads to consider high energy photons whose dispersion relations are not
changed significantly by the plasma effects. The absorption coefficient is
computed and compared with the perturbative vacuum result. For the values of
temperature and density of some astrophysical objects with a weak magnetic
field, the matter effects are negligible.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in PR
Collapse to Black Holes in Brans-Dicke Theory: I. Horizon Boundary Conditions for Dynamical Spacetimes
We present a new numerical code that evolves a spherically symmetric
configuration of collisionless matter in the Brans-Dicke theory of gravitation.
In this theory the spacetime is dynamical even in spherical symmetry, where it
can contain gravitational radiation. Our code is capable of accurately tracking
collapse to a black hole in a dynamical spacetime arbitrarily far into the
future, without encountering either coordinate pathologies or spacetime
singularities. This is accomplished by truncating the spacetime at a spherical
surface inside the apparent horizon, and subsequently solving the evolution and
constraint equations only in the exterior region. We use our code to address a
number of long-standing theoretical questions about collapse to black holes in
Brans-Dicke theory.Comment: 46 pages including figures, uuencoded gz-compressed postscript,
Submitted to Phys Rev
Vortex in a relativistic perfect isentropic fluid and Nambu Goto dynamics
By a weak deformation of the cylindrical symmetry of the potential vortex in
a relativistic perfect isentropic fluid, we study the possible dynamics of the
central line of this vortex. In "stiff" material the Nanbu-Goto equations are
obtainedComment: 11 pages, Accepted for publication in Physical Review
Comparing Criteria for Circular Orbits in General Relativity
We study a simple analytic solution to Einstein's field equations describing
a thin spherical shell consisting of collisionless particles in circular orbit.
We then apply two independent criteria for the identification of circular
orbits, which have recently been used in the numerical construction of binary
black hole solutions, and find that both yield equivalent results. Our
calculation illustrates these two criteria in a particularly transparent
framework and provides further evidence that the deviations found in those
numerical binary black hole solutions are not caused by the different criteria
for circular orbits.Comment: 4 pages; to appear in PRD as a Brief Report; added and corrected
reference
Motion and gravitational radiation of a binary system consisting of an oscillating and rotating coplanar dusty disk and a point-like object
A binary system composed of an oscillating and rotating coplanar dusty disk
and a point mass is considered. The conservative dynamics is treated on the
Newtonian level. The effects of gravitational radiation reaction and wave
emission are studied to leading quadrupole order. The related waveforms are
given. The dynamical evolution of the system is determined semi-analytically
exploiting the Hamiltonian equations of motion which comprise the effects both
of the Newtonian tidal interaction and the radiation reaction on the motion of
the binary system in elliptic orbits. Tidal resonance effects between orbital
and oscillatory motions are considered in the presence of radiation damping.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figure
Gravitational Collapse of Cylindrical Shells Made of Counter-Rotating Dust Particles
The general formulas of a non-rotating dynamic thin shell that connects two
arbitrary cylindrical regions are given using Israel's method. As an
application of them, the dynamics of a thin shell made of counter-rotating dust
particles, which emits both gravitational waves and massless particles when it
is expanding or collapsing, is studied. It is found that when the models
represent a collapsing shell, in some cases the angular momentum of the dust
particles is strong enough to halt the collapse, so that a spacetime
singularity is prevented from forming, while in other cases it is not, and a
line-like spacetime singularity is finally formed on the symmetry axis.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.
Role of Initial Data in Higher Dimensional Quasi-Spherical Gravitational Collapse
We study the gravitational collapse in ()-D quasi-spherical Szekeres
space-time (which possess no killing vectors) with dust as the matter
distribution. Instead of choosing the radial coordinate `' as the initial
value for the scale factor , we consider a power function of as the
initial scale for the radius . We examine the influence of initial data on
the formation of singularity in gravitational collapse.Comment: 7 Latex Pages, RevTex Style, No figure
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