Strong Gravity

The effective field theory framework yields a systematic treatment of gravitational bound states such as binary systems. Gravitational waves emitted from compact binaries are one of the prime event candidates at direct detection experiments. Due to the multiple scales involved in the binary problem, an effective field theory treatment yields many advantages in perturbative calculations. My talk will review the setup of the effective field theory framework and report on recent progress in gravitational wave phenomenology.

The local and global properties of the retarded and Feynman Green functions to the wave equation in curved spacetime are crucial for radiation reaction in the classical theory and for renormalisation in the quantum quantum theory. Building on an insight due to Avramidi, we provide a system of transport equations for determining key fundamental geometrical bitensors determining the local Hadamard singularity structure of these Green’s functions. We illustrate their use in a semi-recursive approach showing how to determine covariant expansions to high order, for example, calculating the tail term reflecting backscattering by the curvature of spacetime to 20th order in the geodesic separation in a matter of minutes, and as the basis of numerical calculations. We also present an efficient method to construct covariant expansions of the tail term, without using the formal Hadamard light-cone expansion. Finally we discuss the relationship between the geodesic structure, quasi-normal modes with associated excitation factors and the global behaviour of Green functions in black hole space-times.

The upcoming launch of the space-based gravitational wave interferometer detector LISA will yield an unprecedented amount of astrophysical and cosmological science from a variety of gravitational wave sources. Among these, the extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs) of stellar-mass compact objects into supermassive black holes will provide a unique opportunity to test the predictions of General Relativity for strongly gravitating systems since the masses and spins of these sources are expected to be measured with precisions better than about 1 part in 10^4. Such highly precise measurements require modeling the dynamics of EMRIs and their gravitational waves with high accuracy. In this talk, I discuss using methods of effective field theory (EFT) to accomplish this. Since EMRIs lose energy to gravitational waves, I introduce an open systems framework that proves to be a necessary ingredient to correctly describe EMRIs within the EFT formalism. I will discuss my recent derivation of the equations of motion and waveforms through third order in the mass ratio for a class of nonlinear scalar models that are analogous to the perturbative General Relativistic description of EMRIs. Time permitting, I will also discuss new results that are non-perturbative in the mass ratio in this model.

Assuming exotic matter, several models representing static, spherically symmetric wormhole solutions of Einstein's field equations have been considered in the literature. We examine the dynamical stability of such wormholes in one of the simplest model, in which the matter is described by a massless ghost scalar field, and prove that all solutions are unstable with respect to linear fluctuations and possess precisely one unstable, exponentially in time growing mode. Numerical simulations of the nonlinear field equations suggest that these wormholes either expand or collapse and form a black hole. The stability problem for alternative models including electrically charged wormholes is also discussed.

The long awaited discovery of the double radio pulsar system, PSR J0737-3039A/B, surpassed most expectations, both theoretical and observational, as a tool to probe general relativity, stellar evolution and pulsar theories. The Double Pulsar provides a unique and the most complete and clean test of theories of gravity in a regime sensitive to possible strong-gravitational self-field effects. All six post-Keplerian parameters have been measured (including the measurement of the relativistic spin precession), some parameters to a precision of 10^{-4}.

Inflation is one of the foundational paradigms of our picture of the Universe. Yet distinguishing between the multitude of different inflationary models presents major observational challenges. In this talk, I will discuss a number of inflationary observables, specifically the tilt and running of the primordial power spectrum, compensated isocurvature modes, and non-Gaussianity, and the extent to which they might be constrained by future galaxy surveys and 21 cm experiments.

NANOGrav is a consortium of radio astronomers and gravitational wave physicists whose goal is to detect gravitational waves using an array of millisecond pulsars as clocks. Whereas interferometric gravitational wave experiments use lasers to create the long arms of the detector, NANOGrav uses earth-pulsar pairs. The limits that pulsar timing places on the energy density of gravitational waves in the universe are on the brink of limiting models of galaxy formation and have already placed limits on the tension of cosmic strings. Pulsar timing has traditionally focused on stochastic sources, but most recently I have been investigating the idea of detecting individual gravitational wave bursts wherein there are some interesting advantages. I will also demonstrate how the array can be used to reconstruct the waveform and obtain its direction.

There has been a growing interest in electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave signals. Of particular interest here, are counterparts to gravitational wave signals from super-massive black hole mergers. We consider a circumbinary disk, hollowed out by torques from the binary, and provide an analytic solution to its response following merger. There are two changes to the potential which occur during the merger process: an axisymmetric mass-energy loss and asymmetric recoil kick given to the resulting super-massive black hole. With a brief literature search we argue that, for fiducial disk values and for black hole spins aligned and anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum, throughout the majority of parameter space the mass loss well dominates the effects of the recoil kicks on the circumbinary disk. This, along with assuming vertical hydrodynamic equilibrium, reduces the problem to one dimension. Using a 1D hydrodynamical code we explore the majority of parameter space and describe the different possible flows. In the 1D case, we give analytic approximations for the locations of the first shocks, their strengths, and the final density after the disk has again reached a steady state. This allows one to determine the temperature jump across the shock front and determine the observability, modulo the yet unknown disk mass.

Numerical simulations of binary black holes with spin have revealed some surprising behavior: for antialigned spins in the orbital plane, 1) one sees an up-and-down "bobbing" of the entire orbital plane at the orbital frequency and 2) the merged black hole receives an enormous kick that depends on the phase at merger. Natural questions are: What causes the bobbing? Can the kick be viewed as a post-merger continuation of the bobbing? We show that this type of bobbing is in fact ubiquitous in relativistic mechanics, occurring independently of the type of force holding two spinning bodies in orbit. The cause can be identified as a spin correction to the naive center of mass of a body; the effect is analogous to Thomas precession and is ``purely kinematical'' in the same way. Since a kick requires the release of field momentum, it is instead very dependent on the type of force holding bodies in orbit. In a mechanical analog (spinning balls connected by a string), there is bobbing but can be no kick. In an electromagnetic analog, one should be able to tune the kick independently of the bobbing. In the gravitational case the spin parameter happens to control both bobbing and kick, making separate tuning impossible and giving the appearance of causation to two essentially unrelated phenomena. Our answers are therefore: the bobbing is caused by a purely kinematical effect of spin, and the kick cannot be viewed its post-merger continuation.

I will present the latest results from the searches for gravitational waves from the coalescence of binary systems of neutron stars and black holes in LIGO and Virgo data. We present results on data from the Fifth Science Run LIGO run S5 from Nov 2005 to Oct 2007, which was joint with Virgo's first Science Run VSR1 from May to Oct 2007. We also show how these methods are being applied in the current LIGO S6/ Virgo VSR2 data-taking run started in July 2009, and recently ended in October 2010.

I discuss a model for particle acceleration in the current sheet separating the open and closed field line regions, and crossing the neutral line region, of a pulsar's magnetosphere, which has substantial kinship to the phenomena observed in planetary magnetospheres within the solar system. Possible applications to gamma ray emission from pulsars are also described.

A remarkable result from heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is that shortly after a collision, the medium produced behaves as a nearly ideal liquid. The system is very dynamic and evolves from a state of two colliding nuclei to a liquid in a time roughly equivalent to the time it takes light to cross a proton. Understanding the mechanisms behind the rapid approach to a liquid state is a challenging task. In recent years holography has emerged as a powerful tool to study non-equilibrium phenomena, mapping the (challenging) dynamics of quantum systems onto the dynamics of classical gravitational systems. The creation of a liquid in a quantum theory maps onto the classical process of gravitational collapse and black hole formation. I will describe how one can use holography to study processes which mimic the dynamics of heavy ion collisions.