No Arabic abstract
A fourth-order and a second-order nonlinear diffusion models in spectral space are proposed to describe gravitational wave turbulence in the approximation of strongly local interactions. We show analytically that the model equations satisfy the conservation of energy and wave action, and reproduce the power law solutions previously derived from the kinetic equations with a direct cascade of energy and an explosive inverse cascade of wave action. In the latter case, we show numerically by computing the second-order diffusion model that the non-stationary regime exhibits an anomalous scaling which is understood as a self-similar solution of the second kind with a front propagation following the law $k_f sim (t_*-t)^{3.296}$, with $t<t_*$. These results are relevant to better understand the dynamics of the primordial universe where potent sources of gravitational waves may produce space-time turbulence.
Pulsar timing experiments are currently searching for gravitational waves, and this dissertation focuses on the development and study of the pulsar timing residual models used for continuous wave searches. The first goal of this work is to re-present much of the fundamental physics and mathematics concepts behind the calculations and theory used in pulsar timing. While there exist many reference sources in the literature, I try to offer a fully self-contained explanation of the fundamentals of this research which I hope the reader will find helpful. The next goal broadly speaking has been to further develop the mathematics behind the currently used pulsar timing models for detecting gravitational waves with pulsar timing experiments. I classify four regimes of interest, governed by frequency evolution and wavefront curvature effects incorporated into the timing residual models. Of these four regimes the plane-wave models are well established in previous literature. I add a new regime which I label Fresnel, as I show it becomes important for significant Fresnel numbers describing the curvature of the gravitational wavefront. Then I give two in-depth studies. The first forecasts the ability of future pulsar timing experiments to probe and measure these Fresnel effects. The second further generalizes the models to a cosmologically expanding universe, and I show how the Hubble constant can be measured directly in the most generalized pulsar timing residual model. This offers future pulsar timing experiments the possibility of being able to procure a purely gravitational wave-based measurement of the Hubble constant. The final chapter shows the initial steps taken to extend this work in the future toward Doppler tracking experiments.
A two-field Hamiltonian gyrofluid model for kinetic Alfven waves retaining ion finite Larmor radius corrections, parallel magnetic field fluctuations and electron inertia, is used to study turbulent cascades from the MHD to the sub-ion scales. Special attention is paid to the case of imbalance between waves propagating along or opposite to the ambient magnetic field. For weak turbulence in the absence of electron inertia, kinetic equations for the spectral density of the conserved quantities (total energy and generalized cross-helicity) are obtained. They provide a global description, matching between the regimes of reduced MHD at large scales and electron reduced MHD at small scales, previously considered in the literature. In the limit of ultra-local interactions, Leith-type nonlinear diffusion equations in the Fourier space are derived and heuristically extended to the strong turbulence regime by modifying the transfer time appropriately. Relations with existing phenomenological models for imbalanced MHD and balanced sub-ion turbulence are discussed. It turns out that in the presence of dispersive effects, the dynamics is sensitive on the way turbulence is maintained in a steady state. Furthermore, the total energy spectrum at sub-ion scales becomes steeper as the generalized cross-helicity flux is increased.
We present the first direct numerical simulation of gravitational wave turbulence. General relativity equations are solved numerically in a periodic box with a diagonal metric tensor depending on two space coordinates only, $g_{ij} equiv g_{ii}(x,y,t) delta_{ij}$, and with an additional small-scale dissipative term. We limit ourselves to weak gravitational waves and to a freely decaying turbulence. We find that an initial metric excitation at intermediate wavenumber leads to a dual cascade of energy and wave action. When the direct energy cascade reaches the dissipative scales, a transition is observed in the temporal evolution of energy from a plateau to a power-law decay, while the inverse cascade front continues to propagate toward low wavenumbers. The wavenumber and frequency-wavenumber spectra are found to be compatible with the theory of weak wave turbulence and the characteristic time-scale of the dual cascade is that expected for four-wave resonant interactions. The simulation reveals that an initially weak gravitational wave turbulence tends to become strong as the inverse cascade of wave action progresses with a selective amplification of the fluctuations $g_{11}$ and $g_{22}$.
It is widely accepted that the primordial universe experienced a brief period of accelerated expansion called inflation. This scenario provides a plausible solution to the horizon and flatness problems. However, the particle physics mechanism responsible for inflation remains speculative with, in particular , the assumption of a scalar field called inflaton. Furthermore, the comparison with the most recent data raises new questions that encourage the consideration of alternative hypotheses. Here, we propose a completely different scenario based on a mechanism whose origins lie in the nonlin-earities of the Einstein field equations. We use the analytical results of weak gravitational wave turbulence to develop a phenomenological theory of strong gravitational wave turbulence where the inverse cascade of wave action plays a key role. In this scenario, the space-time metric excitation triggers an explosive inverse cascade followed by the formation of a condensate in Fourier space whose growth is interpreted as an expansion of the universe. Contrary to the idea that gravitation can only produce a decelerating expansion, our study reveals that gravitational wave turbulence could be a source of inflation. The fossil spectrum that emerges from this scenario is shown to be in agreement with the cosmic microwave background radiation measured by the Planck mission.
Using recent experimental results of detection of gravitational waves from the binary black hole signals by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo, we investigate the propagation of gravitational waves in the context of fourth order gravity nonminimally coupled to a massive scalar field. Gravitational radiation admits extra massive modes of oscillation and we assume that the amplitude of these modes is comparable to that of the massless mode. We derive the propagation equation and effective mass for each degree of freedom and we infer, from the current observational data, constraints on the free parameters of the gravity models we considered. In particular, for $f(R)=R-R^2/R_0 $, the constraint obtained from the speed of gravitational waves is not compatible with the one set by Solar System tests, which implies that amplitude of the massive modes could not be detectable with current experiments on Earth