Talks

In this talk, I explain how twistors can be used to provide a covariant UV cut-off for 4-D gauge theory. I'll then motivate the conjecture that the cut-off gauge theory automatically contains 4-D Einstein gravity. As evidence, I describe how the theory reproduces the gravitational MHV amplitudes.

The Einstein Toolkit Consortium is developing and supporting open software for relativistic astrophysics. Our aim is to provide the core computational tools that can enable new science, broaden the community, facilitate interdisciplinary research, and take advantage of emerging petascale computers and advanced cyberinfrastructure. The Einstein Toolkit currently consists of an open set of over 100 components for computational relativity along with associated tools for simulation management and visualization. The toolkit includes a vacuum spacetime solver, a relativistic hydrodynamics solver, along with components for initial data, analysis, and computational infrastructure. These components have been developed and improved over many years by many different contributors.

New equations of state (EOSs) from extensive virial and relativistic mean field calculations will be presented. We construct thermodynamically consistent EOSs from slightly noisy free energy calculations, which satisfy the first law, and conserves entropy during adiabatic compression. However this requires a very careful procedure of numerically smoothing the entropy and then integrating the entropy to generate consistent free energies. We discuss various features of the EOS in different density, temperature, and proton fraction regimes. We compare the adiabatic index for our EOSs with those of the Lattimer Swesty and H. Shen et al. EOSs. We do not find a first order liquid vapor phase transition for the astrophysical EOS. Finally, we discuss neutrino interactions that are consistent with our EOSs. At low density, we present model independent neutrino responses that are based on the viral expansion .

Present treatments of eternal inflation regulate infinities by imposing a geometric cutoff. We point out that some matter systems reach the cutoff in finite time. This implies a nonzero probability for a novel type of catastrophe. According to the most successful measure proposals, our galaxy is likely to encounter the cutoff within the next 5 billion years.

Massive accretion disks may form from the merger of neutron star (NS)-NS or black hole-NS binaries, or following the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a white dwarf. These disks, termed `hyper-accreting' due to their accretion rates up to several solar masses per second, may power the relativistic jets responsible for short duration gamma-ray bursts. Using 1D time-dependent calculations of hyper-accreting disks, I show that a generic consequence of the disk's late-time evolution is the development of a powerful outflow, powered by viscous heating and the recombination of free nuclei into Helium. These outflows - in additional to any material dynamically-ejected during the merger - synthesize heavy radioactive elements as they expand into space. Nuclear heating from the r-process is not yet incorporated in merger simulations, yet has important consequences both for the dynamics of late `fall-back' accretion and in powering a supernova-like transient (`kilonova') 1 day following the merger or AIC.

Massive accretion disks may form from the merger of neutron star (NS)-NS or black hole-NS binaries, or following the accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of a white dwarf. These disks, termed `hyper-accreting' due to their accretion rates up to several solar masses per second, may power the relativistic jets responsible for short duration gamma-ray bursts. Using 1D time-dependent calculations of hyper-accreting disks, I show that a generic consequence of the disk's late-time evolution is the development of a powerful outflow, powered by viscous heating and the recombination of free nuclei into Helium. These outflows - in additional to any material dynamically-ejected during the merger - synthesize heavy radioactive elements as they expand into space. Nuclear heating from the r-process is not yet incorporated in merger simulations, yet has important consequences both for the dynamics of late `fall-back' accretion and in powering a supernova-like transient (`kilonova') 1 day following the merger or AIC.

By combining insights from black holes and string theory we argue for the existence of a hidden phase space associated with an underlying fast dynamical system, which is largely invisible from a macroscopic point of view. The dynamical system is influenced by slow macroscopic observables, such as positions of objects. This leads to a collection of reaction forces, whose leading order Born Oppenheimer force is determined by the general principle that the phase space volume of the underlying system is preserved. We propose that this adiabatic force is responsible for inertia and gravity. This fact allows us to calculate the hidden phase space volume from the known laws of inertia and gravity. We find that in a cosmological setting the appearance of dark energy is naturally explained by the finite temperature of the underlying system. The adiabatic approximation that leads to the usual laws of inertia and gravity breaks down in the neighborhood of horizons. In this regime the reaction force degenerates into an entropic force, and the laws of inertia and gravity receive corrections due to thermal effects. A simple estimate of these effects leads to the conclusion that they coincide with observed phenomena attributed to dark matter.

The energy generated by the r-process can impact the dynamics of neutron star mergers. Solving a full r-process network coupled with the hydrodynamics becomes the necessary but it is computational very expensive. We have developed a simple model that can be implemented into hydrodynamic simulations and gives a very good estimate of the r-process heating.