Latest Papers in General Relativity

General Relativity And Quantum Cosmology

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Sub-threshold binary neutron star search in Advanced LIGO's first observing run (1901.09884v1)

Ryan Magee, Heather Fong, Sarah Caudill, Cody Messick, Kipp Cannon, Patrick Godwin, Chad Hanna, Shasvath Kapadia, Duncan Meacher, Siddharth R. Mohite, Debnandini Mukherjee, Alexander Pace, Surabhi Sachdev, Minori Shikauchi, Leo Singer

2019-01-28

We present a search for gravitational waves from double neutron star binaries inspirals in Advanced LIGO's first observing run. The search considers a narrow range of binary chirp masses motivated by the population of known double neutron star binaries in the nearby universe. This search differs from previously published results by providing the most sensitive published survey of neutron stars in Advanced LIGO's first observing run within this narrow mass range and including times when only one of the two LIGO detectors was in operation in the analysis. The search was sensitive to binary neutron star inspirals to an average distance of ~85 Mpc over 93.2 days. We do not identify any unambiguous gravitational wave signals in our sample of 103 sub-threshold candidates with false-alarm-rates of less than one per day. However, given the expected binary neutron star merger rate of R = 100 - 4000 Gpc^(-3) yr^(-1), we expect O(1) gravitational wave events within our candidate list. This suggests the possibility that one or more of these candidates is in fact a binary neutron star merger. Although the contamination fraction in our candidate list is ~99%, it might be possible to correlate these events with other messengers to identify a potential multi-messenger signal. We provide an online candidate list with the times and sky locations for all events in order to enable multi-messenger searches.

Weak lensing distortions beyond shear (1809.03924v2)

Pierre Fleury, Julien Larena, Jean-Philippe Uzan

2018-09-11

When a luminous source is extended, its distortions by weak gravitational lensing are richer than a mere combination of magnification and shear. In a recent work, we proposed an elegant formalism based on complex analysis to describe and calculate such distortions. The present article further elaborates this finite-beam approach, and applies it to a realistic cosmological model. In particular, the cosmic correlations of image distortions beyond shear are predicted for the first time. These constitute new weak-lensing observables, sensitive to very-small-scale features of the distribution of matter in the Universe. While the major part of the analysis is performed in the approximation of circular sources, a general method for extending it to noncircular sources is presented and applied to the astrophysically relevant case of elliptic sources.

Cosmic convergence and shear with extended sources (1809.03919v2)

Pierre Fleury, Julien Larena, Jean-Philippe Uzan

2018-09-11

The standard theory of weak gravitational lensing relies on the approximation that light beams are infinitesimal. Our recent work showed that the finite size of sources, and the associated light beams, can cause nonperturbative corrections to the weak-lensing convergence and shear. This article thoroughly investigates these corrections in a realistic cosmological model. The continuous transition from infinitesimal to finite beams is understood, and reveals that the previous results overestimated finite-beam effects due to simplistic assumptions on the distribution of matter in the Universe. In a KiloDegree Survey-like setting, finite-beam corrections to the cosmic shear remain subpercent, while percent-level corrections are only reached on subarcmin scales. This article thus demonstrates the validity of the infinitesimal-beam approximation in the interpretation of current weak-lensing data.

Higgs inflation in the Palatini formulation with kinetic terms for the metric (1811.09514v2)

Syksy Rasanen

2018-11-21

We consider scalar field inflation in the Palatini formulation of general relativity. The covariant derivative of the metric is then non-zero. From the effective theory point of view it should couple to other fields. We write down the most general couplings between it and a scalar field that are quadratic in derivatives. We consider both the case when the torsion is determined by the field equations and the case when it is assumed to be zero a priori. We find the metric derivative terms can significantly modify inflationary predictions. We specialise to Higgs inflation and terms of only up to dimension 4. Transforming to the Einstein frame, we show that by tuning the coefficients of the new terms, we can generate various effective inflationary potentials, including quadratic, hilltop-type, -attractor and inflection point. Some of these can give inflation in agreement with observations, including with a large tensor-to-scalar ratio, even if the non-minimal coupling is zero.

Self-Assembly of Geometric Space from Random Graphs (1901.09870v1)

Christy Kelly, Carlo A Trugenberger, Fabio Biancalana

2019-01-28

We present a Euclidean quantum gravity model in which random graphs dynamically self-assemble into discrete manifold structures. Concretely, we consider a statistical model driven by a discretisation of the Euclidean Einstein-Hilbert action; contrary to previous approaches based on simplicial complexes and Regge calculus our discretisation is based on the Ollivier curvature, a coarse analogue of the manifold Ricci curvature defined for generic graphs. The Ollivier curvature is generally difficult to evaluate due to its definition in terms of optimal transport theory, but we present a new exact expression for the Ollivier curvature in a wide class of relevant graphs purely in terms of the numbers of short cycles at an edge. This result should be of independent intrinsic interest to network theorists. Action minimising configurations prove to be cubic complexes up to defects; there are indications that such defects are dynamically suppressed in the macroscopic limit. Closer examination of a defect free model shows that certain classical configurations have a geometric interpretation and discretely approximate vacuum solutions to the Euclidean Einstein-Hilbert action. Working in a configuration space where the geometric configurations are stable vacua of the theory, we obtain direct numerical evidence for the existence of a continuous phase transition; this makes the model a UV completion of Euclidean Einstein gravity. Notably, this phase transition implies an area-law for the entropy of emerging geometric space. Certain vacua of the theory can be interpreted as baby universes; we find that these configurations appear as stable vacua in a mean field approximation of our model, but are excluded dynamically whenever the action is exact indicating the dynamical stability of geometric space. The model is intended as a setting for subsequent studies of emergent time mechanisms.

Unambiguous Phase Spaces for Subregions (1901.09857v1)

Josh Kirklin

2019-01-28

The covariant phase space technique is a powerful formalism for understanding the Hamiltonian description of covariant field theories. However, applications of this technique to problems involving subregions, such as the exterior of a black hole, have heretofore been plagued by boundary ambiguities. We provide a resolution of these ambiguities by directly computing the symplectic structure from the path integral, showing that it may be written as a contour integral around a partial Cauchy surface. This result has implications for gauge symmetry and entanglement.

Singularity theorems for warped products and the stability of spatial extra dimensions (1901.07271v2)

Nastassja Cipriani, José M. M. Senovilla

2019-01-22

New singularity theorems are derived for generic warped-product spacetimes of any dimension. The main purpose is to analyze the stability of (compact or large) extra dimensions against dynamical perturbations. To that end, the base of the warped product is assumed to be our visible 4-dimensional world, while the extra dimensions define the fibers, hence we consider "extra-dimensional evolution". Explicit conditions on the warping function that lead to geodesic incompleteness are given. These conditions can be appropriately rewritten, given a warping function, as restrictions on the intrinsic geometry of the fibers ---i.e. the extra dimensional space. To find the results, the conditions for parallel transportation in warped products in terms of their projections onto the base and the fibers have been solved, a result of independent mathematical interest that have been placed on an Appendix.

Induced current in high-dimensional AdS spacetime in the presence of a cosmic string and a compactified extra dimension (1809.00702v2)

W. Oliveira dos Santos, H. F. Mota, E. R. Bezerra de Mello

2018-09-03

In this paper, we analyse the bosonic current densities induced by a magnetic flux running along the core of an idealized cosmic string in a high-dimensional AdS spacetime, admitting that an extra dimension coordinate is compactified. Additionally we admit the presence of a magnetic flux enclosed by the compactified axis. In order to develop this analysis we calculate the complete set of normalized bosonic wave-functions obeying a quasiperiodicity condition, with arbitrary phase , along the compactified extra dimension. In this context, only azimuthal and axial currents densities take place. As to the azimuthal current, two contributions appear. The first one corresponds to the standard azimuthal current in high-dimensional AdS spacetime with a cosmic string without compactification while the second contribution is a new one, induced by the compactification itself. The latter is an even function of the magnetic flux enclosed by the compactified axis and is an odd function of the magnetic flux along its core with period equal to quantum flux, . On the other hand, the nonzero axial current density is an even function of the magnetic flux along the core of the string and an odd function of the magnetic flux enclosed by the compactified axis. We also find that the axial current density vanishes for untwisted and twisted bosonic fields in the absence of the magnetic flux enclosed by the compactified axis. Some asymptotic expressions for the current density are provided for specific limiting cases of the physical parameter of the model.

Viscous Cosmologies (1901.09787v1)

Sergio Bravo Medina, Marek Nowakowski, Davide Batic

2019-01-28

We probe into universes filled with Quark Gluon Plasma with non-zero viscosities. In particular, we study the evolution of a universe with non-zero shear viscosity motivated by the theoretical result of a non-vanishing shear viscosity in the Quark Gluon Plasma due to quantum-mechanical effects. We first review the consequences of a non-zero bulk viscosity and show explicitly the non-singular nature of the bulk-viscosity-universe by calculating the cosmological scale factor which goes to zero only asymptotically. We further extend the model of bulk viscosity to include a Cosmological Constant. We contrast the previous results with the cosmology of universes with non-zero shear viscosity. We first clarify under which conditions shear viscosity terms are compatible with the Friedmann-Lama^itre-Robertson-Walker metric. To this end we use a version of the energy-momentum tensor from the M"uller-Isreal-Stewart theory which leads to causal Navier-Stoke equations. We then derive the corresponding Friedmann equations and show under which conditions the universe emerges non-singular.

On a soliton-type spacetime defect (1811.01078v2)

F. R. Klinkhamer

2018-11-05

We review the construction of a particular soliton-type solution of the classical Einstein and matter-field equations. This localized finite-energy static classical solution can be interpreted as a single spacetime defect embedded in Minkowski spacetime and may give rise to several new effects. For a Skyrme-type theory with small enough matter-field energy scale compared to the Planck energy scale and for a sufficiently small defect length scale, the existence of a globally regular solution requires a negative active gravitational mass, so that the defect repels a distant test particle ("antigravity"). There also exist so-called stealth defects (having a positive energy density of the matter fields but a vanishing asymptotic gravitational mass) which bring about a new type of gravitational lensing.

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