Engineering topics

Goldberger, Walter D.

Publications and source records attributed to Goldberger, Walter D..

4 records

DOE OSTI2021

Non-conservative effects on spinning black holes from world-line effective field theory

We generalize the worldline EFT formalism developed in [4–9] to calculate the non-conservative tidal effects on spinning black holes in a long wavelength approximation that is valid to all orders in the magnitude of the spin. We present results for the rate of change of mass and angular momentum in a background field and find agreement with previous calculations obtained by different techniques. We also present new results for both the non-conservative equations of motion and power loss/gain for a binary inspiral, which start at 5PN and 2.5PN order respectively and manifest the Penrose process.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Horizon radiation reaction forces

Using Effective Field Theory (EFT) methods, we compute the effects of horizon dissipation on the gravitational interactions of relativistic binary black hole systems. We assume that the dynamics is perturbative, i.e it admits an expansion in powers of Newton’s constant (post-Minkowskian, or PM, approximation). As applications, we compute corrections to the scattering angle in a black hole collision due to dissipative effects to leading PM order, as well as the post-Newtonian (PN) corrections to the equations of motion of binary black holes in non-relativistic orbits, which represents the leading order finite size effect in the equations of motion. The methods developed here are also applicable to the case of more general compact objects, eg. neutron stars, where the magnitude of the dissipative effects depends on non-gravitational physics (e.g, the equation of state for nuclear matter).

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

DOE OSTI2020

An effective field theory of quantum mechanical black hole horizons

We develop an effective theory which describes black holes with quantum mechanical horizons that is valid at scales long compared to the Schwarzschild radius but short compared to the lifetime of the black hole. Our formalism allows one to calculate the quantum mechanical effects in scattering processes involving black hole asymptotic states. We point out that the EFT Wightman functions which describe Hawking radiation in the Unruh vacuum are not Planck suppressed and are actually enhanced relative to those in the Boulware vacuum, for which such radiation is absent. We elaborate on this point showing how the non-Planck suppressed effects of Hawking radiation cancel in classical observables.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

DOE OSTI2020

Strings, extended objects, and the classical double copy

We extend Shen’s recent formulation (arXiv:1806.07388) of the classical double copy, based on explicit color-kinematic duality, to the case of finite-size sources with non-zero spin. For the case of spinning Yang-Mills sources, the most general consistent double copy consists of gravitating objects which carry pairs of spin degrees of freedom. We find that the couplings of such objects to background fields match those of a classical (i.e. heavy) closed bosonic string, suggesting a string theory interpretation of sources related by color-kinematics duality. As a special case, we identify a limit, corresponding to unoriented strings, in which the 2-form Kalb-Ramond axion field decouples from the gravitational side of the double copy. Finally, we apply the classical double copy to extended objects, described by the addition of finite-size operators to the worldline effective theory. We find that consistency of the color-to-kinematics map requires that the Wilson coefficients of tidal operators obey certain relations, indicating that the extended gravitating objects generated by the double copy of Yang-Mills are not completely generic.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗