arXiv subjects

Achamveedu Gopakumar

Publications and source records attributed to Achamveedu Gopakumar.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Accretion Disk Parameters determined from the great 2015 flare of OJ 287

In the binary black hole model of OJ 287 the secondary black hole orbits a much more massive primary, and impacts on the primary accretion disk at predictable times. We update the parameters of the disk, the viscosity $α$ and the mass accretion rate $\dot m$. We find $α=0.26 \pm 0.1$ and $\dot m = 0.08 \pm 0.04$ in Eddington units. The former value is consistent with Coroniti (1981) and the latter with Marscher and Jorstad (2011). Predictions are made for the 2019 July 30 superflare in OJ 287. We expect that it will take place simultaneously at the Spitzer infrared channels as well as in the optical and that therefore the timing of the flare in optical can be accurately determined from Spitzer observations. We also discuss in detail the light curve of the 2015 flare and find that the radiating volume has regions where bremsstrahlung dominates as well as regions that radiate primarily in synchrotron radiation. The former region produces the unpolarised first flare while the latter region gives rise to a highly polarized second flare.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

The Unique Blazar OJ 287 and its Massive Binary Black Hole Central Engine

The bright blazar OJ 287 is the best-known candidate for hosting a nanohertz gravitational wave (GW) emitting supermassive binary black hole (SMBBH) in the present observable universe. The binary black hole (BBH) central engine model, proposed by Lehto and Valtonen in 1996, was influenced by the two distinct periodicities inferred from the optical light curve of OJ 287. The current improved model employs an accurate general relativistic description to track the trajectory of the secondary black hole (BH) which is crucial to predict the inherent impact flares of OJ 287. The successful observations of three predicted impact flares open up the possibility of using this BBH system to test general relativity in a hitherto unexplored strong field regime. Additionally, we briefly describe an on-going effort to interpret observations of OJ 287 in a Bayesian framework.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Fourier domain gravitational waveforms for precessing eccentric binaries

We build two families of inspiral waveforms for precessing binaries on eccentric orbits in the Fourier domain. To achieve this, we use a small eccentricity expansion of the waveform amplitudes in order to separate the periastron precession timescale from the orbital timescale, and use a shifted uniform asymptotics transformation to compute the Fourier transform in the presence of spin-induced precession. We show that the resulting waveforms can yield a median faithfulness above 0.993 when compared to an equivalent time domain waveform with an initial eccentricity of $e_0 \approx 0.3$. We also show that when the spins are large, using a circular waveform can potentially lead to significant biases in the recovery of the parameters, even when the system has fully circularized, particularly when the accumulated number of cycles is large. This is an effect of the residual eccentricity present when the objects forming the binary have nonvanishing spin components in the orbital plane.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Exploring the Effect of Periastron Advance in Small-Eccentricity Binary Pulsars

Short-orbital period small-eccentricity binary pulsars can, in principle, experience substantial advance of periastron. We explore the possibility of measuring this effect by implementing a timing model, ELL1k, in the popular TEMPO2 pulsar timing package. True secular variations in the Laplace-Lagrange parameters, present in our ELL1k model, can lead to measurable timing residuals while pursuing decade-long timing campaigns using the existing ELL1 timing model of Lange et al. (2001), especially for binaries exhibiting significant periastron advance. We also list the main differences between our approach and various implementations of the ELL1 model present in both TEMPO and TEMPO2 packages. Detailed TEMPO2 simulations suggest the possibility of constraining the apsidal motion constant of pulsar companions in certain observed binary pulsars with minuscule eccentricities such as PSR J1719-1438. Fortunately, the ELL1k timing model does not pose any challenges to the on-going Pulsar Timing Array campaigns that routinely employ the ELL1 timing model. Detailed TEMPO2 simulations suggest the possibility of constraining the apsidal motion constant of pulsar companions in certain observed binary pulsars with minuscule eccentricities such as PSR J1719-1438. Fortunately, the ELL1k timing model does not pose any challenges to the on-going Pulsar Timing Array campaigns that routinely employ the ELL1 timing model.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2018

Gravitational waves from compact binaries in post-Newtonian accurate hyperbolic orbits

We derive from first principles third post-Newtonian (3PN) accurate Keplerian-type parametric solution to describe PN-accurate dynamics of non-spinning compact binaries in hyperbolic orbits. Orbital elements and functions of the parametric solution are obtained in terms of the conserved orbital energy and angular momentum in both Arnowitt-Deser-Misner type and modified harmonic coordinates. Elegant checks are provided that include a modified analytic continuation prescription to obtain our independent hyperbolic parametric solution from its eccentric version. A prescription to model gravitational wave polarization states for hyperbolic compact binaries experiencing 3.5PN-accurate orbital motion is presented that employs our 3PN-accurate parametric solution.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Solving post-Newtonian accurate Kepler Equation

We provide an elegant way of solving analytically the third post-Newtonian (3PN) accurate Kepler equation, associated with the 3PN-accurate generalized quasi-Keplerian parametrization for compact binaries in eccentric orbits. An additional analytic solution is presented to check the correctness of our compact solution and we perform comparisons between our PN-accurate analytic solution and a very accurate numerical solution of the PN-accurate Kepler equation. We adapt our approach to compute crucial 3PN-accurate inputs that will be required to compute analytically both the time and frequency domain ready-to-use amplitude-corrected PN-accurate search templates for compact binaries in inspiralling eccentric orbits.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Inspiral waveforms for spinning compact binaries in a new precessing convention

It is customary to use a precessing convention, based on Newtonian orbital angular momentum ${\bf L}_{\rm N}$, to model inspiral gravitational waves from generic spinning compact binaries. A key feature of such a precessing convention is its ability to remove all spin precession induced modulations from the orbital phase evolution. However, this convention usually employs a post-Newtonian (PN) accurate precessional equation, appropriate for the PN accurate orbital angular momentum ${\bf L}$, to evolve the ${\bf L}_{\rm N}$-based precessing source frame. This motivated us to develop inspiral waveforms for spinning compact binaries in a precessing convention that explicitly use ${\bf L}$ to describe the binary orbits. Our approach introduces certain additional 3PN order terms in the orbital phase and frequency evolution equations with respect to the usual ${\bf L}_{\rm N}$-based implementation of the precessing convention. The implications of these additional terms are explored by computing the match between inspiral waveforms that employ ${\bf L}$ and ${\bf L}_{\rm N}$-based precessing conventions. We found that the match estimates are smaller than the optimal value, namely 0.97, for a non-negligible fraction of unequal mass spinning compact binaries.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Frequency and time domain inspiral templates for comparable mass compact binaries in eccentric orbits

Inspiraling compact binaries with non-negligible orbital eccentricities are plausible gravitational wave (GW) sources for the upcoming network of GW observatories. In this paper, we present two prescriptions to compute post-Newtonian (PN) accurate inspiral templates for such binaries. First, we adapt and extend the post-circular scheme of Yunes {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. D 80, 084001 (2009)] to obtain a Fourier-domain inspiral approximant that incorporates the effects of PN-accurate orbital eccentricity evolution. This results in a fully analytic frequency-domain inspiral waveform with Newtonian amplitude and 2PN order Fourier phase while incorporating eccentricity effects up to sixth order at each PN order. The importance of incorporating eccentricity evolution contributions to the Fourier phase in a PN consistent manner is also demonstrated. Second, we present an accurate and efficient prescription to incorporate orbital eccentricity into the quasi-circular time-domain {\texttt{TaylorT4}} approximant at 2PN order. New features include the use of rational functions in orbital eccentricity to implement the 1.5PN order tail contributions to the far-zone fluxes. This leads to closed form PN-accurate differential equations for evolving eccentric orbits and the resulting time-domain approximant is accurate and efficient to handle initial orbital eccentricities $\leq 0.9$. Preliminary GW data analysis implications are probed using match estimates.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

A Proposed Search for the Detection of Gravitational Waves from Eccentric Binary Black Holes

Most of compact binary systems are expected to circularize before the frequency of emitted gravitational waves (GWs) enters the sensitivity band of the ground based interferometric detectors. However, several mechanisms have been proposed for the formation of binary systems, which retain eccentricity throughout their lifetimes. Since no matched-filtering algorithm has been developed to extract continuous GW signals from compact binaries on orbits with low to moderate values of eccentricity, and available algorithms to detect binaries on quasi-circular orbits are sub-optimal to recover these events, in this paper we propose a search method for detection of gravitational waves produced from the coalescences of eccentric binary black holes (eBBH). We study the search sensitivity and the false alarm rates on a segment of data from the second joint science run of LIGO and Virgo detectors, and discuss the implications of the eccentric binary search for the advanced GW detectors.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Post-newtonian analysis of precessing convention for spinning compact binaries

A precessing source frame, constructed using the Newtonian orbital angular momentum ${\bf L_{\rm N}}$, can be invoked to model inspiral gravitational waves from generic spinning compact binaries. An attractive feature of such a precessing convention is its ability to remove all spin precession induced modulations from the orbital phase evolution. However, this convention usually employs a post-Newtonian (PN) accurate precessional equation, appropriate for the PN accurate orbital angular momentum ${\bf L}$, to evolve the ${\bf L_{\rm N}}$-based precessing source frame. This influenced us to develop inspiral waveforms for spinning compact binaries in a precessing convention that explicitly employ ${\bf L}$ to describe the binary orbits. Our approach introduces certain additional 3PN order terms in the evolution equations for the orbital phase and frequency with respect to the usual ${\bf L_{\rm N}}$-based implementation of the precessing convention. We examine the practical implications of these additional terms by computing the match between inspiral waveforms that employ ${\bf L}$ and ${\bf L_{\rm N}}$-based precessing conventions. The match estimates are found to be smaller than the optimal value, namely $0.97$, for a non-negligible fraction of unequal mass spinning compact binaries.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Time-domain inspiral templates for spinning compact binaries in quasi-circular orbits

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Gravitational waves from spinning compact binaries in hyperbolic orbits

Compact binaries in hyperbolic orbits are plausible gravitational wave (GW) sources for the upcoming and planned GW observatories. We develop an efficient prescription to compute post-Newtonian (PN) accurate ready-to-use GW polarization states for spinning compact binaries, influenced by the dominant order spin-orbit interactions, in hyperbolic orbits. This is achieved by invoking the 1.5PN accurate quasi-Keplerian parameterization for the radial sector of the orbital dynamics. We probe the influences of spins and gravitational radiation reaction on $h_+$ and $h_{\times}$ during the hyperbolic passage. It turns out that both polarization states exhibit the memory effect for GWs from spinning compact binaries in hyperbolic orbits. In contrast, only cross polarization state exhibits the memory effect for GWs from non-spinning compact binaries. Additionally, we compute 1PN accurate amplitude corrected GW polarization states for hyperbolic non-spinning compact binaries in a fully parametric manner and perform initial comparisons with the existing waveforms.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Memory effect from spinning unbound binaries

We present a recently developed prescription to obtain ready-to-use gravitational wave (GW) polarization states for spinning compact binaries on hyperbolic orbits. We include leading order spin-orbit interactions, invoking 1.5PN-accurate quasi-Keplerian parametrization for the radial part of the orbital dynamics. We also include radiation reaction effects on $h_+$ and $h_{\times}$ during the interaction. In the GW signals from spinning binaries there is evidence of the memory effect in both polarizations, in contrast to the non-spinning case, where only the cross polarizations exhibits non-vanishing amplitudes at infinite time. We also compute 1PN-accurate GW polarization states for non-spinning compact binaries in unbound orbits in a fully parametric way, and compare them with existing waveforms.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

The remains of a spinning, hyperbolic encounter

We review a recently proposed approach to construct gravitational wave (GW) polarization states of unbound spinning compact binaries. Through this rather simple method, we are able to include corrections due to the dominant order spin-orbit interactions, in the quadrupolar approximation and in a semi-analytic way. We invoke the 1.5 post-Newtonian (PN) accurate quasi-Keplerian parametrization for the radial part of the dynamics and impose its temporal evolution in the PN accurate polarization states equations. Further, we compute 1PN accurate amplitude corrections for the polarization states of non-spinning compact binaries on hyperbolic orbits. As an interesting application, we perform comparisons with previously available results for both the GW signals in the case of non-spinning binaries and the theoretical prediction for the amplitude of the memory effect on the metric after the hyperbolic passage.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Probing evolution of binaries influenced by the spin-orbit resonances

We evolve isolated comparable mass spinning compact binaries experiencing Schnittman's post-Newtonian spin-orbit resonances in an inertial frame associated with $j_0$, the initial direction of the total angular momentum. We argue that accurate gravitational wave (GW) measurements of the initial orientations of the two spins and orbital angular momentum from $j_0$ should allow us to distinguish between the two possible families of spin-orbit resonances. Therefore, these measurements have the potential to provide direct observational evidence of possible binary formation scenarios. The above statements should also apply for binaries that do not remain in a resonant plane when they become detectable by GW interferometers. The resonant plane, characterized by the vanishing scalar triple product involving the two spins and the orbital angular momentum, naturally appears in the one parameter family of equilibrium solutions, discovered by Schnittman. We develop a prescription to compute the time-domain inspiral templates for binaries residing in these resonant configurations and explore their preliminary data analysis consequences.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

Time-domain inspiral templates for spinning compact binaries in quasi-circular orbits described by their orbital angular momenta

We present a prescription to compute the time-domain gravitational wave (GW) polarization states associated with spinning compact binaries inspiraling along quasi-circular orbits. We invoke the orbital angular momentum $\vek L$ rather than its Newtonian counterpart $\vek L_{\rm N}$ to describe the binary orbits while the two spin vectors are freely specified in an inertial frame associated with the initial direction of the total angular momentum. We show that the use of $\vek L$ to describe the orbits leads to additional 1.5PN order amplitude contributions to the two GW polarization states compared to the $\vek L_{\rm N}$-based approach and discuss few implications of our approach. Further, we provide a plausible prescription for GW phasing based on few theoretical considerations and which may be treated as the natural circular limit to GW phasing for spinning compact binaries in inspiraling eccentric orbits [Gopakumar A and Sch{ä}fer G 2011 {\em Phys. Rev. D} {\bf 84} 124007].

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

Gravitational wave data analysis implications of TaylorEt inspiral approximants for ground-based detectors: the non-spinning case

A new family of restricted post-Newtonian-accurate waveforms, termed TaylorEt approximants, was recently proposed for searching gravitational wave (GW) signals from inspiraling non-spinning compact binaries having arbitrary mass-ratios. We perform detailed fitting factor (FF) studies to probe if the TaylorEt (3.5PN) signals for non-spinning comparable mass compact binaries can be effectually and faithfully searched with TaylorT1, TaylorT4, and TaylorF2 (3.5PN) templates in LIGO, Advanced LIGO, and Virgo interferometers. We observe that a good fraction of the templates, which by choice are from TaylorT1, TaylorT4, and TaylorF2 (3.5PN) families, have FF <~ 0.97 and substantial biases for the estimated total-mass against the fiducial TaylorEt (3.5PN) signals for equal-mass systems. Both these observations can bear on the detectability of a signal. TaylorEt (3.5PN) signals with mass-ratios of a third or a quarter yield high FFs against those same template banks, but at the expense of inviting large systematic errors in the estimated values of their total mass and symmetric mass-ratio. In general, the aforementioned templates are found to be increasingly {\it unfaithful} with respect to a TaylorEt signal as one increases the total mass of the inspiraling system. We also observe that the amount of bias in the estimated mass varies with the (noise power spectral density of the) detector. This can be of some concern for multi-detector searches, which check for consistency in the estimated masses of concurrent triggers in their data. (Abridged)

gr-qc↗

arXiv2012

On the ability of various circular inspiral templates to capture inspiral gravitational waves from compact binaries having tiny orbital eccentricities

We probe the ability of various types of post-Newtonian(PN)-accurate circular templates to capture inspiral gravitational-wave (GW) signals from compact binaries having tiny orbital eccentricities. The GW signals are constructed by adapting the phasing formalism, available in T. Damour, A. Gopakumar, and B. R. Iyer, [Phys. Rev. D 70, 064028 (2004)], employing the orbital energy and the time-eccentricity to describe the orbital evolution. Using the fitting factor estimates, relevant for the initial LIGO, we show that circular templates, based on the adiabatic TaylorT1, complete adiabatic TaylorT1 and TaylorT4 approximants are unable to capture our GW signals from compact binaries having tiny residual orbital eccentricities. However, the 2PN-order circular inspiral templates based on the recently introduced TaylorEt approximant are found to be both effectual and faithful in capturing GWs from inspiralling compact binaries having moderate eccentricities and we provide physical explanations for our observations.

gr-qc↗