6,114 research outputs found
Boundary-induced phase transitions in traffic flow
Boundary-induced phase transitions are one of the surprising phenomena
appearing in nonequilibrium systems. These transitions have been found in
driven systems, especially the asymmetric simple exclusion process. However, so
far no direct observations of this phenomenon in real systems exists. Here we
present evidence for the appearance of such a nonequilibrium phase transition
in traffic flow occurring on highways in the vicinity of on- and off-ramps.
Measurements on a German motorway close to Cologne show a first-order
nonequilibrium phase transition between a free-flow phase and a congested
phase. It is induced by the interplay of density waves (caused by an on-ramp)
and a shock wave moving on the motorway. The full phase diagram, including the
effect of off-ramps, is explored using computer simulations and suggests means
to optimize the capacity of a traffic network.Comment: 5 figures, revte
Mariner-Mars science subsystem
Mariner-Mars science subsystem - cosmic ray telescope, cosmic dust detector, trapped radiation detector, ionization chamber, plasma probe, magnetometer, and data processin
Estimating the sensitivity of wide-parameter-space searches for gravitational-wave pulsars
This paper presents an in-depth study of how to estimate the sensitivity of
searches for gravitational-wave pulsars -- rapidly-rotating neutron stars which
emit quasi-sinusoidal gravitational waves. It is particularly concerned with
searches over a wide range of possible source parameters, such as searches over
the entire sky and broad frequency bands. Traditional approaches to estimating
the sensitivity of such searches use either computationally-expensive Monte
Carlo simulations, or analytic methods which sacrifice accuracy by making an
unphysical assumption about the population of sources being searched for. This
paper develops a new, analytic method of estimating search sensitivity which
does not rely upon this unphysical assumption. Unlike previous analytic
methods, the new method accurately predicts the sensitivity obtained using
Monte Carlo simulations, while avoiding their computational expense. The change
in estimated sensitivity due to properties of the search template bank, and the
geographic configuration of the gravitational wave detector network, are also
investigated.Comment: 16 figures, 2 tables, REVTeX 4.1; minor typos corrected from v2,
updated reference
GravEn: Software for the simulation of gravitational wave detector network response
Physically motivated gravitational wave signals are needed in order to study
the behaviour and efficacy of different data analysis methods seeking their
detection. GravEn, short for Gravitational-wave Engine, is a MATLAB software
package that simulates the sampled response of a gravitational wave detector to
incident gravitational waves. Incident waves can be specified in a data file or
chosen from among a group of pre-programmed types commonly used for
establishing the detection efficiency of analysis methods used for LIGO data
analysis. Every aspect of a desired signal can be specified, such as start time
of the simulation (including inter-sample start times), wave amplitude, source
orientation to line of sight, location of the source in the sky, etc. Supported
interferometric detectors include LIGO, GEO, Virgo and TAMA.Comment: 10 Pages, 3 Figures, Presented at the 10th Gravitational Wave Data
Analysis Workshop (GWDAW-10), 14-17 December 2005 at the University of Texas,
Brownsvill
Geometrical Expression for the Angular Resolution of a Network of Gravitational-Wave Detectors
We report for the first time general geometrical expressions for the angular
resolution of an arbitrary network of interferometric gravitational-wave (GW)
detectors when the arrival-time of a GW is unknown. We show explicitly elements
that decide the angular resolution of a GW detector network. In particular, we
show the dependence of the angular resolution on areas formed by projections of
pairs of detectors and how they are weighted by sensitivities of individual
detectors. Numerical simulations are used to demonstrate the capabilities of
the current GW detector network. We confirm that the angular resolution is poor
along the plane formed by current LIGO-Virgo detectors. A factor of a few to
more than ten fold improvement of the angular resolution can be achieved if the
proposed new GW detectors LCGT or AIGO are added to the network. We also
discuss the implications of our results for the design of a GW detector
network, optimal localization methods for a given network, and electromagnetic
follow-up observations.Comment: 13 pages, for Phys. Rev.
A stochastic template placement algorithm for gravitational wave data analysis
This paper presents an algorithm for constructing matched-filter template
banks in an arbitrary parameter space. The method places templates at random,
then removes those which are "too close" together. The properties and
optimality of stochastic template banks generated in this manner are
investigated for some simple models. The effectiveness of these template banks
for gravitational wave searches for binary inspiral waveforms is also examined.
The properties of a stochastic template bank are then compared to the
deterministically placed template banks that are currently used in
gravitational wave data analysis.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure
Gravitational Radiation from Nonaxisymmetric Instability in a Rotating Star
We present the first calculations of the gravitational radiation produced by
nonaxisymmetric dynamical instability in a rapidly rotating compact star. The
star deforms into a bar shape, shedding of its mass and
of its angular momentum. The gravitational radiation is calculated in the
quadrupole approximation. For a mass M and radius km, the gravitational waves have frequency kHz and amplitude
at the distance of the Virgo Cluster. They carry off
energy and radiate angular momentum .Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX with REVTEX macros, reprints available - send mailing
address to [email protected]. Published: PRL 72, 1314 (1994
Gravitational Waves from Mergin Compact Binaries: How Accurately Can One Extract the Binary's Parameters from the Inspiral Waveform?
The most promising source of gravitational waves for the planned detectors
LIGO and VIRGO are merging compact binaries, i.e., neutron star/neutron star
(NS/NS), neutron star/black hole (NS/BH), and black hole/black-hole (BH/BH)
binaries. We investigate how accurately the distance to the source and the
masses and spins of the two bodies will be measured from the gravitational wave
signals by the three detector LIGO/VIRGO network using ``advanced detectors''
(those present a few years after initial operation). The combination of the masses of the two bodies is
measurable with an accuracy . The reduced mass is measurable
to for NS/NS and NS/BH binaries, and for BH/BH
binaries (assuming BH's). Measurements of the masses and spins are
strongly correlated; there is a combination of and the spin angular
momenta that is measured to within . We also estimate that distance
measurement accuracies will be for of the detected
signals, and for of the signals, for the LIGO/VIRGO
3-detector network.Comment: 103 pages, 20 figures, submitted to Phys Rev D, uses revtex macros,
Caltech preprint GRP-36
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
Templates for stellar mass black holes falling into supermassive black holes
The spin modulated gravitational wave signals, which we shall call smirches,
emitted by stellar mass black holes tumbling and inspiralling into massive
black holes have extremely complicated shapes. Tracking these signals with the
aid of pattern matching techniques, such as Wiener filtering, is likely to be
computationally an impossible exercise. In this article we propose using a
mixture of optimal and non-optimal methods to create a search hierarchy to ease
the computational burden. Furthermore, by employing the method of principal
components (also known as singular value decomposition) we explicitly
demonstrate that the effective dimensionality of the search parameter space of
smirches is likely to be just three or four, much smaller than what has
hitherto been thought to be about nine or ten. This result, based on a limited
study of the parameter space, should be confirmed by a more exhaustive study
over the parameter space as well as Monte-Carlo simulations to test the
predictions made in this paper.Comment: 12 pages, 4 Tables, 4th LISA symposium, submitted to CQ
- …