Bialynicki-Birula and Charzynski [1] argued that the gravitational wave emitted during the merger of a black hole binary may trap particles. In this Letter we amplify their statement by describing particle motion in the wave proposed by Lukash [2] to study anisotropic cosmological models. Bounded geodesics (found both analytically and numerically) arise when the wave is of Bianchi type VI. Their symmetries are identified.
Heun-type exact solutions emerge for both the radial and the angular equations for the case of a scalar particle coupled to the zero mass limit of both the Kerr and Kerr-(anti)de-Sitter spacetime. Since any type D metric has Heun-type solutions, it i
s interesting that this property is retained in the zero mass case. This work further refutes the claims that $M$ going to zero limit of the Kerr metric is both locally and globally the same as the Minkowski metric.
Fermi normal coordinates provide a standardized way to describe the effects of gravitation from the point of view of an inertial observer. These coordinates have always been introduced via perturbation expansions and were usually limited to distances
much less than the characteristic length scale set by the curvature of spacetime. For a plane gravitational wave this scale is given by its wavelength which defines the domain of validity for these coordinates known as the long-wavelength regime. The symmetry of this spacetime, however, allows us to extend Fermi normal coordinates far beyond the long-wavelength regime. Here we present an explicit construction for this long-range Fermi normal coordinate system based on the unique solution of the boundary-value problem for spacelike geodesics. The resulting formulae amount to summation of the infinite series for Fermi normal coordinates previously obtained with perturbation expansions. We also consider two closely related normal coordinate systems: optical coordinates which are built from null geodesics and wave-synchronous coordinates which are built from spacelike geodesics locked in phase with the propagating gravitational wave. The wave-synchronous coordinates yield the exact solution of Peres and Ehlers-Kundt which is globally defined. In this case, the limitation of the long-wavelength regime is completely overcome, and the system of wave-synchronous coordinates becomes valid for arbitrarily large distances. Comparison of the different coordinate systems is done by considering the motion of an inertial test mass in the field of a plane gravitational wave.
We study the time-independent scattering of a planar gravitational wave propagating in the curved spacetime of a compact body with a polytropic equation of state. We begin by considering the geometric-optics limit, in which the gravitational wave pro
pagates along null geodesics of the spacetime; we show that a wavefront passing through a neutron star of tenuity $R/M = 6$ will be focussed at a cusp caustic near the stars surface. Next, using the linearized Einstein Field Equations on a spherically-symmetric spacetime, we construct the metric perturbations in the odd and even parity sectors; and, with partial-wave methods, we numerically compute the gravitational scattering cross section from helicity-conserving and helicity-reversing amplitudes. At long wavelengths, the cross section is insensitive to stellar structure and, in the limit $M omega rightarrow 0$, it reduces to the known low-frequency approximation of the black hole case. At higher frequencies $M omega gtrsim 1$, the gravitational wave probes the internal structure of the body. In essence, we find that the gravitational wave cross section is similar to that for a massless scalar field, although with subtle effects arising from the non-zero helicity-reversing amplitude, and the coupling in the even-parity sector between the gravitational wave and the fluid of the body. The cross section exhibits emph{rainbow scattering} with an Airy-type oscillation superposed on a Rutherford cross section. We show that the rainbow angle, which arises from a stationary point in the geodesic deflection function, depends on the polytropic index. In principle, rainbow scattering provides a diagnostic of the equation of state of the compact body; but, in practice, this requires a high-frequency astrophysical source of gravitational waves.
Cryogenic cooling of the test masses of interferometric gravitational wave detectors is a promising way to reduce thermal noise. However, cryogenic cooling limits the incident power to the test masses, which limits the freedom of shaping the quantum
noise. Cryogenic cooling also requires short and thick suspension fibers to extract heat, which could result in the worsening of thermal noise. Therefore, careful tuning of multiple parameters is necessary in designing the sensitivity of cryogenic gravitational wave detectors. Here, we propose the use of particle swarm optimization to optimize the parameters of these detectors. We apply it for designing the sensitivity of the KAGRA detector, and show that binary neutron star inspiral range can be improved by 10%, just by retuning seven parameters of existing components. We also show that the sky localization of GW170817-like binaries can be further improved by a factor of 1.6 averaged across the sky. Our results show that particle swarm optimization is useful for designing future gravitational wave detectors with higher dimensionality in the parameter space.
Binary black hole may form near a supermassive black hole. The background black hole (BH) will affect the gravitational wave (GW) generated by the binary black hole. It is well known that the Penrose process may provide extra energy due to the ergosp
here. In the present paper we investigate the energy amplification of the gravitational wave by a Kerr black hole background. In particular and different from the earlier studies, we compare the energies of the waves in the cases with and without a nearby Kerr BH. We find that only when the binary black hole is moving relative to the Kerr background can the GW energy be amplified. Otherwise, the energy will be suppressed by the background Kerr black hole. This finding is consistent with the inequality found by Wald for Penrose process. Taking into account realistic astrophysical scenarios, we find that the Kerr black hole background can amplify the GW energy by at most 5 times.