Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userNonlinear gravitational-wave memory from cusps and kinks on cosmic strings
88
0
0.0
(
0
)
Added by
Alexander C. Jenkins
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
The nonlinear memory effect is a fascinating prediction of general relativity (GR), in which oscillatory gravitational-wave (GW) signals are generically accompanied by a monotonically-increasing strain which persists in the detector long after the signal has passed. This effect presents a unique opportunity to test GR in the dynamical and nonlinear regime. In this article we calculate the nonlinear memory signal associated with GW bursts from cusps and kinks on cosmic string loops, which are an important target for current and future GW observatories. We obtain analytical waveforms for the GW memory from cusps and kinks, and use these to calculate the memory of the memory and other higher-order memory effects. These are among the first memory observables computed for a cosmological source of GWs, with previous literature having focused almost entirely on astrophysical sources. Surprisingly, we find that the cusp GW signal diverges for sufficiently large loops, and argue that the most plausible explanation for this divergence is a breakdown in the weak-field treatment of GW emission from the cusp. This shows that previously-neglected strong gravity effects must play an important role near cusps, although the exact mechanism by which they cure the divergence is not currently understood. We show that one possible resolution is for these cusps to collapse to form primordial black holes (PBHs); the kink memory signal does not diverge, in agreement with the fact that kinks are not predicted to form PBHs. Finally, we investigate the prospects for detecting memory from cusps and kinks with GW observatories. We find that in the scenario where the cusp memory divergence is cured by PBH formation, the memory signal is strongly suppressed and is not likely to be detected. However, alternative resolutions of the cusp divergence may in principle lead to much more favourable observational prospects.
rate research
Read More
We find the leading-order effect of gravitational back-reaction on cosmic strings for points near kinks and cusps. Near a kink, the effect diverges as the inverse cube root of the distance to the kink, and acts in a direction transverse to the worldsheet. Over time the kink is rounded off, but only regions fairly close to the kink are significantly affected. Near cusps, the effect diverges inverse linearly with the distance to the cusp, and acts against the direction of the cusp motion. This results in a fractional loss of string energy that diverges logarithmically with the distance of closest approach to the cusp.
Cosmic strings can give rise to a large variety of interesting astrophysical phenomena. Among them, powerful bursts of gravitational waves (GWs) produced by cusps are a promising observational signature. In this Letter we present a search for GWs from cosmic string cusps in data collected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors between 2005 and 2010, with over 625 days of live time. We find no evidence of GW signals from cosmic strings. From this result, we derive new constraints on cosmic string parameters, which complement and improve existing limits from previous searches for a stochastic background of GWs from cosmic microwave background measurements and pulsar timing data. In particular, if the size of loops is given by the gravitational backreaction scale, we place upper limits on the string tension $Gmu$ below $10^{-8}$ in some regions of the cosmic string parameter space.
We construct, for the first time, the time-domain gravitational wave strain waveform from the collapse of a strongly gravitating Abelian Higgs cosmic string loop in full general relativity. We show that the strain exhibits a large memory effect during merger, ending with a burst and the characteristic ringdown as a black hole is formed. Furthermore, we investigate the waveform and energy emitted as a function of string width, loop radius and string tension $Gmu$. We find that the mass normalized gravitational wave energy displays a strong dependence on the inverse of the string tension $E_{mathrm{GW}}/M_0propto 1/Gmu$, with $E_{mathrm{GW}}/M_0 sim {cal O}(1)%$ at the percent level, for the regime where $Gmugtrsim10^{-3}$. Conversely, we show that the efficiency is only weakly dependent on the initial string width and initial loop radii. Using these results, we argue that gravitational wave production is dominated by kinematical instead of geometrical considerations.
Cosmic strings are potential gravitational wave (GW) sources that can be probed by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). In this work we develop a detection algorithm for a GW burst from a cusp on a cosmic string, and apply it to Parkes PTA data. We find four events with a false alarm probability less than 1%. However further investigation shows that all of these are likely to be spurious. As there are no convincing detections we place upper limits on the GW amplitude for different event durations. From these bounds we place limits on the cosmic string tension of G mu ~ 10^{-5}, and highlight that this bound is independent from those obtained using other techniques. We discuss the physical implications of our results and the prospect of probing cosmic strings in the era of Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
We study the relative contribution of cusps and pseudocusps, on cosmic (super)strings, to the emitted bursts of gravitational waves. The gravitational wave emission in the vicinity of highly relativistic points on the string follows, for a high enough frequency, a logarithmic decrease. The slope has been analytically found to be $^{-4}/_3$ for points reaching exactly the speed of light in the limit $c=1$. We investigate the variations of this high frequency behaviour with respect to the velocity of the points considered, for strings formed through a numerical simulation, and we then compute numerically the gravitational waves emitted. We find that for string points moving with velocities as far as $10^{-3}$ from the theoretical (relativistic) limit $c=1$, gravitational wave emission follows a behaviour consistent with that of cusps, effectively increasing the number of cusps on a string. Indeed, depending on the velocity threshold chosen for such behaviour, we show the emitting part of the string worldsheet is enhanced by a factor ${cal O}(10^3)$ with respect to the emission of cusps only.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
