Engineering topics

Cardoso, Vitor

Publications and source records attributed to Cardoso, Vitor.

7 records

DOE OSTI2018

Black Holes in an Effective Field Theory Extension of General Relativity

Effective field theory methods suggest that some rather general extensions of general relativity include, or are mimicked by, certain higher-order curvature corrections, with coupling constants expected to be small but otherwise arbitrary. Thus, the tantalizing prospect to test the fundamental nature of gravity with gravitational-wave observations, in a systematic way, emerges naturally. Here, we build black hole solutions in such a framework and study their main properties. Once rotation is included, we find the first purely gravitational example of geometries without Z 2 symmetry. Despite the higher-order operators of the theory, we show that linearized fluctuations of such geometries obey second-order differential equations. We find nonzero tidal Love numbers. We study and compute the quasinormal modes of such geometries. These results are of interest to gravitational-wave science but also potentially relevant for electromagnetic observations of the galactic center or x-ray binaries.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2016

Black holes and gravitational waves in models of minicharged dark matter

In viable models of minicharged dark matter, astrophysical black holes might be charged under a hidden U(1) symmetry and are formally described by the same Kerr-Newman solution of Einstein-Maxwell theory. These objects are unique probes of minicharged dark matter and dark photons. We show that the recent gravitational-wave detection of a binary black-hole coalescence by aLIGO provides various observational bounds on the black hole’s charge, regardless of its nature. The pre-merger inspiral phase can be used to constrain the dipolar emission of (ordinary and dark) photons, whereas the detection of the quasinormal modes set an upper limit on the final black hole’s charge. By using a toy model of a point charge plunging into a Reissner-Nordstrom black hole, we also show that in dynamical processes the (hidden) electromagnetic quasinormal modes of the final object are excited to considerable amplitude in the gravitational-wave spectrum only when the black hole is nearly extremal. The coalescence produces a burst of low-frequency dark photons which might provide a possible electromagnetic counterpart to black-hole mergers in these scenarios.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2013

INTO THE LAIR: GRAVITATIONAL-WAVE SIGNATURES OF DARK MATTER

The nature and properties of dark matter (DM) are both outstanding issues in physics. Besides clustering in halos, the universal character of gravity implies that self-gravitating compact DM configurations-predicted by various models-might be spread throughout the universe. Their astrophysical signature can be used to probe fundamental particle physics, or to test alternative descriptions of compact objects in active galactic nuclei. Here, we discuss the most promising dissection tool of such configurations: the inspiral of a compact stellar-size object and consequent gravitational-wave (GW) emission. The inward motion of this ''test probe'' encodes unique information about the nature of the supermassive configuration. When the probe travels through some compact region we show, within a Newtonian approximation, that the quasi-adiabatic inspiral is mainly driven by DM accretion and by dynamical friction, rather than by radiation reaction. When accretion dominates, the frequency and amplitude of the GW signal produced during the latest stages of the inspiral are nearly constant. In the exterior region we study a model in which the inspiral is driven by GW and scalar-wave emission, described at a fully relativistic level. Resonances in the energy flux appear whenever the orbital frequency matches the effective mass of the DM particle, corresponding to the excitation of the central object's quasinormal frequencies. Unexpectedly, these resonances can lead to large dephasing with respect to standard inspiral templates, to such an extent as to prevent detection with matched filtering techniques. We discuss some observational consequences of these effects for GW detection.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2012

TESTING ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF GRAVITY USING THE SUN

We propose a new approach to test possible corrections to Newtonian gravity using solar physics. The high accuracy of current solar models and new precise observations allow us to constrain corrections to standard gravity at unprecedented levels. Our case study is Eddington-inspired gravity, an attractive modified theory of gravity which results in non-singular cosmology and collapse. The theory is equivalent to standard gravity in vacuum, but it sensibly differs from it within matter. For instance, it affects the evolution and the equilibrium structure of the Sun, giving different core temperature profiles, and deviations in the observed acoustic modes and in solar neutrino fluxes. Comparing the predictions from a modified solar model with observations, we constrain the coupling parameter of the theory, |{kappa}{sub g}| {approx}< 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 5} m{sup 5} s{sup -2} kg{sup -1}. Our results show that the Sun can be used to efficiently constrain alternative theories of gravity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Collisions of unequal mass black holes and the point particle limit

Numerical relativity has seen incredible progress in the last years, and is being applied with success to a variety of physical phenomena, from gravitational wave research and relativistic astrophysics to cosmology and high-energy physics. Here we probe the limits of current numerical setups, by studying collisions of unequal mass, nonrotating black holes of mass ratios up to 1 ratio 100 and making contact with a classical calculation in general relativity: the infall of a pointlike particle into a massive black hole. Our results agree well with the predictions coming from linearized calculations of the infall of pointlike particles into nonrotating black holes. In particular, in the limit that one hole is much smaller than the other, and the infall starts from an infinite initial separation, we recover the point-particle limit. Thus, numerical relativity is able to bridge the gap between fully nonlinear dynamics and linearized approximations, which may have important applications. Finally, we also comment on the 'spurious' radiation content in the initial data and the linearized predictions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Higher-dimensional puncture initial data

We calculate puncture initial data, corresponding to single and binary black holes with linear momenta, which solve the constraint equations of D-dimensional vacuum gravity. The data are generated by a modification of the pseudospectral code presented in [M. Ansorg, B. Bruegmann, and W. Tichy, Phys. Rev. D 70, 064011 (2004).] and made available as the TwoPunctures thorn inside the Cactus computational toolkit. As examples, we exhibit convergence plots, the violation of the Hamiltonian constraint as well as the initial data for D=4,5,6,7. These initial data are the starting point to perform high-energy collisions of black holes in D dimensions.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2011

Slowly rotating black holes in alternative theories of gravity

We present, in closed analytic form, a general stationary, slowly rotating black hole, which is a solution to a large class of alternative theories of gravity in four dimensions. In these theories, the Einstein-Hilbert action is supplemented by all possible quadratic, algebraic curvature invariants coupled to a scalar field. The solution is found as a deformation of the Schwarzschild metric in general relativity. We explicitly derive the changes to the orbital frequency at the innermost stable circular orbit and at the light ring in closed form. These results could be useful when comparing general relativity against alternative theories by (say) measurements of x-ray emission in accretion disks, or by stellar motion around supermassive black holes. When gravitational-wave astronomy comes into force, strong constraints on the coupling parameters can in principle be made.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗