895 research outputs found
ILLUMINATING BLACK HOLE BINARY FORMATION CHANNELS WITH SPINS IN ADVANCED LIGO
The recent detections of the binary black hole mergers GW150914 and GW151226 have inaugurated the field of gravitational-wave astronomy. For the two main formation channels that have been proposed for these sources, isolated binary evolution in galactic fields and dynamical formation in dense star clusters, the predicted masses and merger rates overlap significantly, complicating any astrophysical claims that rely on measured masses alone. Here, we examine the distribution of spinâorbit misalignments expected for binaries from the field and from dense star clusters. Under standard assumptions for black hole natal kicks, we find that black hole binaries similar to GW150914 could be formed with significant spinâorbit misalignment only through dynamical processes. In particular, these heavy-black hole binaries can only form with a significant spinâorbit anti-alignment in the dynamical channel. Our results suggest that future detections of merging black hole binaries with measurable spins will allow us to identify the main formation channel for these systems.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-1312945)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY- 1307020)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NNX14AP92G)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY11-25915)MIT Department of Physics Pappalardo Progra
New Candidate Interstellar Particle in Stardust IS Aerogel Collector: Analysis by STXM and Ptychography
The Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination (ISPE) reported in 2014 the discovery of 7 probable contemporary interstellar (IS) particles captured in Stardust IS Collector aerogel and foils. The ISPE reports represented work done over 6 years by more than 60 scientists and >30,000 volunteers, which emphasizes the challenge identifying and analyzing Stardust IS samples was far beyond the primary Stardust cometary collection. We present a new potentially interstellar particle resulting from a continuation of analyses of the IS aerogel collection
Elastic Spin Relaxation Processes in Semiconductor Quantum Dots
Electron spin decoherence caused by elastic spin-phonon processes is
investigated comprehensively in a zero-dimensional environment. Specifically, a
theoretical treatment is developed for the processes associated with the
fluctuations in the phonon potential as well as in the electron procession
frequency through the spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions in the
semiconductor quantum dots. The analysis identifies the conditions (magnetic
field, temperature, etc.) in which the elastic spin-phonon processes can
dominate over the inelastic counterparts with the electron spin-flip
transitions. Particularly, the calculation results illustrate the potential
significance of an elastic decoherence mechanism originating from the
intervalley transitions in semiconductor quantum dots with multiple equivalent
energy minima (e.g., the X valleys in SiGe). The role of lattice anharmonicity
and phonon decay in spin relaxation is also examined along with that of the
local effective field fluctuations caused by the stochastic electronic
transitions between the orbital states. Numerical estimations are provided for
typical GaAs and Si-based quantum dots.Comment: 57 pages, 14 figure
Classifying the unknown: discovering novel gravitational-wave detector glitches using similarity learning
The observation of gravitational waves from compact binary coalescences by
LIGO and Virgo has begun a new era in astronomy. A critical challenge in making
detections is determining whether loud transient features in the data are
caused by gravitational waves or by instrumental or environmental sources. The
citizen-science project \emph{Gravity Spy} has been demonstrated as an
efficient infrastructure for classifying known types of noise transients
(glitches) through a combination of data analysis performed by both citizen
volunteers and machine learning. We present the next iteration of this project,
using similarity indices to empower citizen scientists to create large data
sets of unknown transients, which can then be used to facilitate supervised
machine-learning characterization. This new evolution aims to alleviate a
persistent challenge that plagues both citizen-science and instrumental
detector work: the ability to build large samples of relatively rare events.
Using two families of transient noise that appeared unexpectedly during LIGO's
second observing run (O2), we demonstrate the impact that the similarity
indices could have had on finding these new glitch types in the Gravity Spy
program
Magnetic Impurity in a Metal with Correlated Conduction Electrons: An Infinite Dimensions Approach
We consider the Hubbard model with a magnetic Anderson impurity coupled to a
lattice site. In the case of infinite dimensions, one-particle correlations of
the impurity electron are described by the effective Hamiltonian of the
two-impurity system. One of the impurities interacts with a bath of free
electrons and represents the Hubbard lattice, and the other is coupled to the
first impurity by the bare hybridization interaction. A study of the effective
two-impurity Hamiltonian in the frame of the 1/N expansion and for the case of
a weak conduction-electron interaction (small U) reveals an enhancement of the
usual exponential Kondo scale. However, an intermediate interaction (U/D = 1 -
3), treated by the variational principle, leads to the loss of the exponential
scale. The Kondo temperature T_K of the effective two-impurity system is
calculated as a function of the hybridization parameter and it is shown that
T_K decreases with an increase of U. The non-Fermi-liquid character of the
Kondo effect in the intermediate regime at the half filling is discussed.Comment: 12 pages with 8 PS figures, RevTe
Kondo Effect in a Metal with Correlated Conduction Electrons: Diagrammatic Approach
We study the low-temperature behavior of a magnetic impurity which is weakly
coupled to correlated conduction electrons. To account for conduction electron
interactions a diagrammatic approach in the frame of the 1/N expansion is
developed. The method allows us to study various consequences of the conduction
electron correlations for the ground state and the low-energy excitations. We
analyse the characteristic energy scale in the limit of weak conduction
electron interactions. Results are reported for static properties (impurity
valence, charge susceptibility, magnetic susceptibility, and specific heat) in
the low-temperature limit.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure
Black Hole Mergers from Hierarchical Triples in Dense Star Clusters
Hierarchical triples are expected to be produced by the frequent binary-mediated interactions in the cores of globular clusters. In some of these triples, the tertiary companion can drive the inner binary to merger following large eccentricity oscillations, as a result of the eccentric KozaiâLidov mechanism. In this paper, we study the dynamics and merger rates of black hole (BH) hierarchical triples, formed via binaryâbinary encounters in the CMC Cluster Catalog, a suite of cluster simulations with present-day properties representative of the Milky Way's globular clusters. We compare the properties of the mergers from triples to the other merger channels in dense star clusters, and show that triple systems do not produce significant differences in terms of mass and effective spin distribution. However, they represent an important pathway for forming eccentric mergers, which could be detected by LIGOâVirgo/Kamioka Gravitational-Wave Detector (LVK), and future missions such as LISA and the DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory. We derive a conservative lower limit for the merger rate from this channel of 0.35 Gpcâ»Âł yrâ»Âč in the local universe and up to ~9% of these events may have a detectable eccentricity at LVK design sensitivity. Additionally, we find that triple systems could play an important role in retaining second-generation BHs, which can later merge again in the core of the host cluster
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