1,402 research outputs found
Program: Featured Lecture, Life on the Vine: Revisiting the Wine and the Wineskins.
Program for the Twenty-Seventh Annual William M. Green Distinguished Christian Lecture Program with featured lecturer Dr. John O. York, Professor of Bible and Preaching, Lipscomb University
Constraint and gauge shocks in one-dimensional numerical relativity
We study how different types of blow-ups can occur in systems of hyperbolic
evolution equations of the type found in general relativity. In particular, we
discuss two independent criteria that can be used to determine when such
blow-ups can be expected. One criteria is related with the so-called geometric
blow-up leading to gradient catastrophes, while the other is based upon the
ODE-mechanism leading to blow-ups within finite time. We show how both
mechanisms work in the case of a simple one-dimensional wave equation with a
dynamic wave speed and sources, and later explore how those blow-ups can appear
in one-dimensional numerical relativity. In the latter case we recover the well
known ``gauge shocks'' associated with Bona-Masso type slicing conditions.
However, a crucial result of this study has been the identification of a second
family of blow-ups associated with the way in which the constraints have been
used to construct a hyperbolic formulation. We call these blow-ups ``constraint
shocks'' and show that they are formulation specific, and that choices can be
made to eliminate them or at least make them less severe.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures and 1 table, revised version including several
amendments suggested by the refere
Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP
We measure cosmological parameters using the three-dimensional power spectrum
P(k) from over 200,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in
combination with WMAP and other data. Our results are consistent with a
``vanilla'' flat adiabatic Lambda-CDM model without tilt (n=1), running tilt,
tensor modes or massive neutrinos. Adding SDSS information more than halves the
WMAP-only error bars on some parameters, tightening 1 sigma constraints on the
Hubble parameter from h~0.74+0.18-0.07 to h~0.70+0.04-0.03, on the matter
density from Omega_m~0.25+/-0.10 to Omega_m~0.30+/-0.04 (1 sigma) and on
neutrino masses from <11 eV to <0.6 eV (95%). SDSS helps even more when
dropping prior assumptions about curvature, neutrinos, tensor modes and the
equation of state. Our results are in substantial agreement with the joint
analysis of WMAP and the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, which is an impressive
consistency check with independent redshift survey data and analysis
techniques. In this paper, we place particular emphasis on clarifying the
physical origin of the constraints, i.e., what we do and do not know when using
different data sets and prior assumptions. For instance, dropping the
assumption that space is perfectly flat, the WMAP-only constraint on the
measured age of the Universe tightens from t0~16.3+2.3-1.8 Gyr to
t0~14.1+1.0-0.9 Gyr by adding SDSS and SN Ia data. Including tensors, running
tilt, neutrino mass and equation of state in the list of free parameters, many
constraints are still quite weak, but future cosmological measurements from
SDSS and other sources should allow these to be substantially tightened.Comment: Minor revisions to match accepted PRD version. SDSS data and ppt
figures available at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/sdsspars.htm
Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project
The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort
between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data
analysis communities. The purpose of NINJA is to study the sensitivity of
existing gravitational-wave search algorithms using numerically generated
waveforms and to foster closer collaboration between the numerical relativity
and data analysis communities. We describe the results of the first NINJA
analysis which focused on gravitational waveforms from binary black hole
coalescence. Ten numerical relativity groups contributed numerical data which
were used to generate a set of gravitational-wave signals. These signals were
injected into a simulated data set, designed to mimic the response of the
Initial LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors. Nine groups analysed this
data using search and parameter-estimation pipelines. Matched filter
algorithms, un-modelled-burst searches and Bayesian parameter-estimation and
model-selection algorithms were applied to the data. We report the efficiency
of these search methods in detecting the numerical waveforms and measuring
their parameters. We describe preliminary comparisons between the different
search methods and suggest improvements for future NINJA analyses.Comment: 56 pages, 25 figures; various clarifications; accepted to CQ
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