SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 1602.01853

Covariant Hyperbolization of Force-free Electrodynamics

Abstract

Force-Free Flectrodynamics (FFE) is a non-linear system of equations modeling the evolution of the electromagnetic field, in the presence of a magnetically dominated relativistic plasma. This configuration arises on several astrophysical scenarios, which represent exciting laboratories to understand physics in extreme regimes. We show that this system, when restricted to the correct constraint submanifold, is symmetric hyperbolic. In numerical applications is not feasible to keep the system in that submanifold, and so, it is necessary to analyze its structure first in the tangent space of that submanifold and then in a whole neighborhood of it. As already shown by Pfeiffer, a direct (or naive) formulation of this system (in the whole tangent space) results in a weakly hyperbolic system of evolution equations for which well-possednes for the initial value formulation does not follows. Using the generalized symmetric hyperbolic formalism due to Geroch, we introduce here a covariant hyperbolization for the FFE system. In fact, in analogy to the usual Maxwell case, a complete family of hyperbolizers is found, both for the restricted system on the constraint submanifold as well as for a suitably extended system defined in a whole neighborhood of it. A particular symmetrizer among the family is then used to write down the pertaining evolution equations, in a generic ($3+1$)-decomposition on a background spacetime. Interestingly, it turns out that for a particular choice of the lapse and shift functions of the foliation, our symmetrized system reduces to the one found by Pfeiffer. Finally we analyze the characteristic structure of the resulting evolution system.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Federico Carrasco, Oscar Reula. 2016-02-04. Covariant Hyperbolization of Force-free Electrodynamics. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.93.085013

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Electrovacuum Black Hole Uniqueness

We prove the black hole uniqueness conjecture in the axially symmetric, stationary, electrovacuum setting, subject to the refined asymptotic analysis of the associated singular harmonic maps, which includes an analyticity hypothesis at the axes. More precisely, it is shown that any asymptotically flat solution of the Einstein--Maxwell equations in this class, with more than one black hole horizon component is either: Majumdar--Papapetrou, up to a duality rotation, in which case all logarithmic angle defects vanish, or every finite axis rod logarithmic angle defect is strictly negative and hence every interaction force is strictly attractive. The proof extends the singular harmonic map method used for vacuum Kerr uniqueness in [18].

gr-qc

Constraining Modified Mass-to-Horizon Cosmology Through Primordial Inflationary Observables

We investigate slow-roll inflation in a modified cosmological framework inspired by a generalized mass-to-horizon relation (MHR), $M=\gamma {c^2 L^n}/{G}$, where $n$ is a real parameter and $\gamma$ a dimensional constant. Using Padmanabhan's emergence paradigm, we derive the modified Friedmann equations for a flat FRW universe and analyze the dynamics of a canonical scalar field (inflaton) under the slow-roll approximation. We study the resulting inflationary phenomenology for power-law and Starobinsky potentials. For power-law potentials, the MHR modification fails to reconcile these models with current CMB constraints on $r$ and $n_s$. In contrast, Starobinsky inflation exhibits significant sensitivity to deviations from $n=1$. A perturbative analysis ($n=1+\Delta$) yields corrections to inflationary observables. We observe that the scalar power-spectrum normalization, under a fixed-Starobinsky prescription, imposes the stringent constraint $0.960 \lesssim n \lesssim 1.040$ for $N=60$ efolds. This is considerably tighter than spectral-index bounds. Our results establish inflation, particularly Starobinsky-like models, as a sensitive probe of generalized horizon thermodynamics and departures from standard MHR scaling.

gr-qc

Improving the Sensitivity of Gravitational Wave Detection with Weighted Conformal Prediction

In the last decade, kilometre-scale interferometric gravitational-wave detectors have observed hundreds of compact binary mergers, the majority of which are binary black holes. However, the data are noise-dominated, and multiple independent search algorithms (pipelines) are used to enhance sensitivity and improve robustness. Rather than the standard approach of selecting the most significant pipeline output, we combine the outputs from all pipelines using a conformal prediction-based framework to provide statistically rigorous confidence estimates for candidate events. While combining pipelines improves sensitivity and ranking robustness, it requires a principled statistical framework that remains valid as data properties evolve across observing runs. A key challenge is distribution shifts between simulated datasets used for training and calibration and the real, unlabelled, observations used for testing, which can invalidate coverage guarantees and bias confidence estimates. In this work, we address this challenge by incorporating likelihood-ratio reweighting into our conformal prediction framework to account for covariate shift. Using mock datasets containing simulated signals, we demonstrate that weighted conformal prediction restores well-calibrated coverage under covariate shift and increases the confidence of events near the detection threshold, recovering true signals that would otherwise be missed.

gr-qc