Table of contents

Newtonian gravitational noise from seismic fields is predicted to be a limiting noise source at low frequency for second generation gravitational-wave detectors. Mitigation of this noise will be achieved by Wiener filtering using arrays of seismometers deployed in the vicinity of all test masses. In this work, we present optimized configurations of seismometer arrays using a variety of simplified models of the seismic field based on seismic observations at LIGO Hanford. The model that best fits the seismic measurements leads to noise reduction limited predominantly by seismometer self-noise. A first simplified design of seismic arrays for Newtonian-noise cancellation at the LIGO sites is presented, which suggests that it will be sufficient to monitor surface displacement inside the buildings.

In fall of 2015, the two LIGO detectors measured the gravitational wave signal GW150914, which originated from a pair of merging black holes (Abbott et al Virgo, LIGO Scientific 2016 Phys. Rev. Lett. 116061102). In the final 0.2 s (about 8 gravitational-wave cycles) before the amplitude reached its maximum, the observed signal swept up in amplitude and frequency, from 35 Hz to 150 Hz. The theoretical gravitational-wave signal for merging black holes, as predicted by general relativity, can be computed only by full numerical relativity, because analytic approximations fail near the time of merger. Moreover, the nearly-equal masses, moderate spins, and small number of orbits of GW150914 are especially straightforward and efficient to simulate with modern numerical-relativity codes. In this paper, we report the modeling of GW150914 with numerical-relativity simulations, using black-hole masses and spins consistent with those inferred from LIGO's measurement (Abbott et al LIGO Scientific Collaboration, Virgo Collaboration 2016 Phys. Rev. Lett. 116241102). In particular, we employ two independent numerical-relativity codes that use completely different analytical and numerical methods to model the same merging black holes and to compute the emitted gravitational waveform; we find excellent agreement between the waveforms produced by the two independent codes. These results demonstrate the validity, impact, and potential of current and future studies using rapid-response, targeted numerical-relativity simulations for better understanding gravitational-wave observations.

Gravitational-wave tails are due to the backscattering of linear waves onto the space-time curvature generated by the total mass of the matter source. The dominant tails correspond to quadratic non-linear interactions and arise at the one-and-a-half post-Newtonian (1.5 PN) order in the gravitational waveform. The 'tails-of-tails', which are cubic non-linear effects appearing at the 3 PN order in the waveform, are also known. We derive here higher non-linear tail effects, namely those associated with quartic non-linear interactions or 'tails-of-tails-of-tails', which are shown to arise at the 4.5 PN order. As an application, we obtain at that order the complete coefficient in the total gravitational-wave energy flux of compact binary systems moving on circular orbits. Our result perfectly agrees with black-hole perturbation calculations in the limit of extreme mass ratio of the two compact objects.

We continue our investigations of the development and importance of the one-arm spiral instability in long-lived hypermassive neutron stars (HMNSs) formed in dynamical capture binary neutron star mergers. Employing hydrodynamic simulations in full general relativity, we find that the one-arm instability is generic in that it can develop in HMNSs within a few tens of milliseconds after merger for all equations of state in our survey. We find that mergers with stiffer equations of state tend to produce HMNSs with stronger m  =  2 azimuthal mode density deformations, and weaker m  =  1 components, relative to softer equations of state. We also find that for equations of state that can give rise to double-core HMNSs, large m  =  1 density modes can already be present due to asymmetries in the two cores. This results in the generation of l  =  2, m  =  1 gravitational wave modes even before the dominance of a one-arm mode that ultimately arises following merger of the two cores. Our results further suggest that stiffer equations of state give rise to HMNSs generating lower m  =  1 gravitational wave frequencies. Thus, if gravitational waves from the one-arm instability are detected, they could in principle constrain the neutron star equation of state. We estimate that, depending on the equation of state, the one-arm mode could potentially be detectable by second generation gravitational wave detectors at  ∼10 Mpc and by third generation ones at  ∼100 Mpc. Finally, we provide estimates of the properties of dynamical ejecta, as well as the accompanying kilonovae signatures.

In this paper we propose a straightforward method for understanding the thermodynamics of black holes in de Sitter space, one that will allow us to study these black holes in a way that is analogous to the anti-de Sitter case. As per usual, we formulate separate thermodynamic first laws for each horizon present in the spacetime, and study their thermodynamics as if they were independent systems characterized by their own temperature. That these systems are not entirely independent and various thermodynamic quantities in them are in fact 'correlated' is reflected by the fact that their thermodynamics can be captured by a single Gibbs free energy-like thermodynamic potential. This quantity contains information about possible phase transitions in the system and allows us to uncover a rich phase structure for de Sitter black holes. In particular, we discover reentrant phase transitions for Kerr–dS black holes in six dimensions, a phenomenon recently observed for their six dimensional AdS cousins.

In this paper we consider conformal symmetry in the context of manifolds with general affine connection. We extend the conformal transformation law of the metric to a general metric compatible affine connection, and find that it is a symmetry of both the geodesic equation and the Riemann tensor. We derive the generalised Jacobi equation and Raychaudhuri equation and show that they are both conformally invariant. Using the geodesic deviation (Jacobi) equation we analyse the behaviour of geodesics in different conformal frames. Since we find that our version of conformal symmetry is exact in classical pure Einstein's gravity, we ask whether one can extend it to the standard model. We find that it is possible to write conformal invariant Lagrangians in any dimensions for vector, fermion and scalar fields, but that such Lagrangians are only gauge invariant in four dimensions. Provided one introduces a dilaton field, gravity can be conformally coupled to matter.

We present a new extension of the weak lensing formalism capable of describing strongly lensed images. This paper accompanies Paper I (Clarkson C 2016 Class. Quantum Grav.3316LT01), where we provide a condensed overview of the approach and illustrated how it works. Here we give all the necessary details, together with some more explicit examples. We solve the nonlinear geodesic deviation equation order-by-order, keeping the leading derivatives of the optical tidal matrix, giving rise to a series of maps from which a complete strongly lensed image is formed. The family of maps are decomposed by separating the trace and trace-free parts of each map. Each trace-free tensor represents an independent spin mode, which distorts circles into a variety of roulettes in the screen-space. It is shown how summing this series expansion allows us to create large strongly lensed images in regions where convergence, shear and flexion are not sufficient.

The UV-LED mission demonstrates the precise control of the potential of electrically isolated test masses. Test mass charge control is essential for the operation of space accelerometers and drag-free sensors which are at the core of geodesy, aeronomy and precision navigation missions as well as gravitational wave experiments and observatories. Charge management using photoelectrons generated by the 254 nm UV line of Hg was first demonstrated on Gravity Probe B and is presently part of the LISA Pathfinder technology demonstration. The UV-LED mission and prior ground testing demonstrates that AlGaN UVLEDs operating at 255 nm are superior to Hg lamps because of their smaller size, lower power draw, higher dynamic range, and higher control authority. We show laboratory data demonstrating the effectiveness and survivability of the UV-LED devices and performance of the charge management system. We also show flight data from a small satellite experiment that was one of the payloads on KACST's SaudiSat-4 mission that demonstrates 'AC charge control' (UV-LEDs and bias are AC modulated with adjustable relative phase) between a spherical test mass and its housing. The result of the mission brings the UV-LED device Technology Readiness Level (TRL) to TRL-9 and the charge management system to TRL-7. We demonstrate the ability to control the test mass potential on an 89 mm diameter spherical test mass over a 20 mm gap in a drag-free system configuration, with potential measured using an ultra-high impedance contact probe. Finally, the key electrical and optical characteristics of the UV-LEDs showed less than 7.5% change in performance after 12 months in orbit.

We investigate the properties of a static, cylindrically symmetric Majumdar–Papapetrou-type solution of Einstein–Maxwell equations. We locate its singularities, establish its algebraic type, find its asymptotic properties and weak-field limit, study the structure of electrogeodesics, and determine the mass and charge of its sources. We provide an interpretation of the spacetime and discuss the parameter appearing in the metric.

In this work, we apply the smooth deformation concept in order to obtain a modification of Friedmann's equations. It is shown that the cosmic coincidence can be at least alleviated using the dynamical properties of the extrinsic curvature. We investigate the transition from nucleosynthesis to the coincidence era obtaining a very small variation of the ratio $r=\tfrac{{\rho }_{{\rm{m}}}}{{\rho }_{{\rm{ext}}}}$ that compares the matter energy density to extrinsic energy density, compatible with the known behavior of the deceleration parameter. We also show that the calculated 'equivalence' redshift matches the transition redshift from a deceleration to accelerated phase and the coincidence ceases to be. The dynamics on r is also studied based on Hubble parameter observations as the latest Baryons Acoustic Oscillations/Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (BAO/CMBR) + SNIa.

We reformulate the relativistic perfect fluid system on curved space–time. Using standard variables, the velocity field u, energy density ρ and pressure p, the covariant Euler–Lagrange equation is obtained from variational principle. This leads to the Euler equation and the equation of continuity in reparametrization invariant form.

We present a method for determining the purely imaginary quasinormal modes of the Kerr geometry. Such modes have previously been explored, but we show that prior results are incorrect. The method we present, based on the theory of Heun polynomials, is very general and can be applied to a broad class of problems, making it potentially useful to all branches of physics. Furthermore, our application provides an example where the method of matched asymptotic expansions seems to have failed. A deeper understanding of why it fails in this case may provide useful insights for other situations.

Flowing black holes are asymptotically locally AdS spacetimes that are stationary but have non-Killing horizons. Holographically, they are dual to a steady-state heat flow in the boundary field theory. We investigate the stability of these black holes in the limit in which they are well-described by the relativistic conformal Navier–Stokes equation. More precisely, we study the quasi-normal modes of the linearized ideal fluid equations. Though we find no unstable modes, there are an infinite number of modes at finite transverse momentum which are arbitrarily long-lived. This suggests the possibility that either non-modal effects or nonlinear interactions between these modes can give rise to new types of gravitational instabilities.

We consider the detailed dynamics of an array of quantised superfluid vortices in the framework of general relativity, as required for quantitative modelling of realistic neutron star cores. Our model builds on the variational approach to relativistic (multi-) fluid dynamics, where the vorticity plays a central role. The description provides a natural extension of, and a better insight into, existing Newtonian models. In particular, we account for the mutual friction associated with scattering of a second 'normal' component in the mixture off of the superfluid vortices. This is an important step which facilitates the connection with the involved microphysics.

A modern version of the idea that the area of event horizons gives 4G times an entropy is the Hubeny–Rangamani causal holographic information (CHI) proposal for holographic field theories. Given a region R of a holographic QFTs, CHI computes A/4G on a certain cut of an event horizon in the gravitational dual. The result is naturally interpreted as a coarse-grained entropy for the QFT. CHI is known to be finitely greater than the fine-grained Hubeny–Rangamani–Takayanagi (HRT) entropy when $\partial R$ lies on a Killing horizon of the QFT spacetime, and in this context satisfies other non-trivial properties expected of an entropy. Here we present evidence that it also satisfies the quantum null energy condition (QNEC), which bounds the second derivative of the entropy of a quantum field theory on one side of a non-expanding null surface by the flux of stress-energy across the surface. In particular, we show CHI to satisfy the QNEC in 1  +  1 holographic CFTs when evaluated in states dual to conical defects in AdS₃. This surprising result further supports the idea that CHI defines a useful notion of coarse-grained holographic entropy, and suggests unprecedented bounds on the rate at which bulk horizon generators emerge from a caustic. To supplement our motivation, we include an appendix deriving a corresponding coarse-grained generalized second law for 1  +  1 holographic CFTs perturbatively coupled to dilaton gravity.

We develop a covariant scheme to describe the dynamics of small perturbations on Lovelock type extended objects propagating in a flat Minkowski spacetime. The higher-dimensional analogue of the Jacobi equation in this theory becomes a wave type equation for a scalar field $\Phi$. Whithin this framework, we analyse the stability of membranes with a de Sitter geometry where we find that the Jacobi equation specializes to a Klein–Gordon (KG) equation for $\Phi$ possessing a tachyonic mass. This shows that, to some extent, these types of extended objects share the symmetries of the Dirac–Nambu–Goto (DNG) action which is by no means coincidental because the DNG model is the simplest included in this type of gravity.

While the linear behavior of gravity in braneworld models is well understood, much less is known about full nonlinear gravitational effects. Even when they agree at the linear level, these could be expected to distinguish braneworlds from a lower-dimensional theory with no brane. Black holes are a good testing ground for such studies, as they are nonlinear solutions that would be expected to reflect the background geometry. In particular, we assess the role of black hole quasinormal modes (QNMs) in gravitational experiments devised to be sensitive to the existence of the brane, in a lower-dimensional setting where we have analytical control. We compute QNMs of brane-localized black holes and find that they follow the entropy of the corresponding black hole. This observation allows us to conclude that, surprisingly, the scattering problem we consider, at least in some regimes, does not distinguish between nonlinear gravitational effects of black holes in AdS space with a brane and black holes in a spacetime of one lower dimension.

We consider circular motion in the NUT (Newman–Unti–Tamburino) space-time. Among other things, we determine the location of circular time-like geodesic orbits, in particular of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) and of the marginally bound circular orbit. Moreover, we discuss the von Zeipel cylinders with respect to the stationary observers and with respect to the zero angular momentum observers (ZAMOs). We also investigate the relation of von Zeipel cylinders to inertial forces, in particular in the ultra-relativistic limit. Finally, we generalise the construction of thick accretion tori ('Polish doughnuts') which are well known on the Schwarzschild or Kerr background to the case of the NUT metric. We argue that, in principle, an NUT source could be distinguished from a Schwarzschild or Kerr source by observing the features of circular matter flows in its neighbourhood.

The laser interferometer space antenna (LISA) is a future space-based interferometric gravitational-wave detector consisting of three spacecraft in a triangular configuration. The interferometric measurements of path length changes between satellites will be performed on optical benches in the satellites. Angular misalignments of the interfering beams couple into the length measurement and represent a significant noise source. Imaging systems will be used to reduce this tilt-to-length coupling.

We designed and constructed an optical test bed to experimentally investigate tilt-to-length coupling. It consists of two separate structures, a minimal optical bench and a telescope simulator. The minimal optical bench comprises the science interferometer where the local laser is interfered with light from a remote spacecraft. In our experiment, a simulated version of this received beam is generated on the telescope simulator. The telescope simulator provides a tilting beam, a reference interferometer and an additional static beam as a phase reference. The tilting beam can either be a flat-top beam or a Gaussian beam. We avoid tilt-to-length coupling in the reference interferometer by using a small photo diode placed at an image of the beam rotation point. We show that the test bed is operational with an initial measurement of tilt-to-length coupling without imaging systems.

Furthermore, we show the design of two different imaging systems whose performance will be investigated in future experiments.

Unruh effect is a landmark prediction of standard quantum field theory in which Fock vacuum state appears as a thermal state with respect to a uniformly accelerating observer. Given its dependence on trans-Planckian modes, Unruh effect is often considered as an arena for exploring a candidate theory of quantum gravity. Here we show that Unruh effect disappears if, instead of using Fock quantization, one uses polymer quantization or loop quantization, the quantization method used in loop quantum gravity. Secondly, the polymer vacuum state remains a vacuum state even for the accelerating observer in the sense that expectation value of number density operator in it remains zero. Finally, if experimental measurement of Unruh effect is ever possible then it may be used either to verify or rule out a theory of quantum gravity.

We investigate black hole thermodynamics involving a scalar hair which is dual to a momentum relaxation of the dual field theory. This black hole geometry is able to be classified by two parameters. One is a momentum relaxation and the other is a mass density of another matter localized at the center. Even though all parameters are continuous, there exists a specific point where its thermodynamic interpretation is not continuously connected to the one defined in the other parameter regime. The similar feature also appears in a topological AdS black hole. In this work, we show why such an unusual thermodynamic feature happens and provide a unified way to understand such an exotic black hole thermodynamically in the entire parameter range.

The continuum limit of a 4-dimensional, discrete d'Alembertian operator for scalar fields on causal sets is studied. The continuum limit of the mean of this operator in the Poisson point process in 4-dimensional Minkowski spacetime is shown to be the usual continuum scalar d'Alembertian $\square$. It is shown that the mean is close to the limit when there exists a frame in which the scalar field is slowly varying on a scale set by the density of the Poisson process. The continuum limit of the mean of the causal set d'Alembertian in 4-dimensional curved spacetime is shown to equal $\square -\frac{1}{2}R$, where R is the Ricci scalar, under certain conditions on the spacetime and the scalar field.

Resolution of singularities in the Kantowski–Sachs model due to non-perturbative quantum gravity effects is investigated. Using the effective spacetime description for the improved dynamics version of loop quantum Kantowski–Sachs spacetimes, we show that even though expansion and shear scalars are universally bounded, there can exist events where curvature invariants can diverge. However, such events can occur only for very exotic equations of state when pressure or derivatives of energy density with respect to triads become infinite at a finite energy density. In all other cases curvature invariants are proved to remain finite for any evolution in finite proper time. We find the novel result that all strong singularities are resolved for arbitrary matter. Weak singularities pertaining to above potential curvature divergence events can exist. The effective spacetime is found to be geodesically complete for particle and null geodesics in finite time evolution. Our results add to a growing evidence for generic resolution of strong singularities using effective dynamics in loop quantum cosmology by generalizing earlier results on isotropic and Bianchi-I spacetimes.

We briefly discuss a method to construct a global, analytic, approximate spacetime for precessing, spinning binary black holes. The spacetime construction is broken into three parts: the inner zones are the spacetimes close to each black hole, and are approximated by perturbed Kerr solutions; the near zone is far from the two black holes, and described by the post-Newtonian metric; and finally the wave (far) zone, where retardation effects need to be taken into account, is well modeled by the post-Minkowskian metric. These individual spacetimes are then stitched together using asymptotic matching techniques to obtain a global solution that approximately satisfies the Einstein field equations. Precession effects are introduced into the coordinate transformation from the inner to near zones according to the precessing equations of motion, in a way that is consistent with the global spacetime construction.