arXiv subjects

Alejandro Torres-Orjuela

Publications and source records attributed to Alejandro Torres-Orjuela.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Black hole spectroscopy with ground-based atom interferometer and space-based laser interferometer gravitational wave detectors

Gravitational wave (GW) detection has enabled us to test General Relativity in an entirely new regime. A prominent role in tests of General Relativity takes the detection of the Quasi-normal modes (QNMs) that arise as the highly distorted remnant formed after the merger emits GWs until it becomes a regular Kerr BH. According to the no-hair theorem, the frequencies and damping times of these QNMs are determined solely by the mass and spin of the remnant BH. Therefore, detecting the QNMs offers a unique way to probe the nature of the remnant BH and to test General Relativity. We study the detection of a merging binary black hole (BBH) in the intermediate mass range, where the inspiral-merger phase is detected by space-based laser interferometer detectors TianQin and LISA while the ringdown is detected by the ground-based atom interferometer (AI) observatory AION. The analysis of the ringdown is done using the regular broadband mode of AI detectors as well as using the resonant mode where the detection band is optimized to the frequencies of the QNMs predicted from the inspiral-merger phase. We find that using the regular broadband mode allows constraining the parameters of the BBH with relative errors of at most $10^{-6}$ from the ringdown while the frequencies and the damping times of the QNMs can be determined with total errors below $0.2\,{\rm Hz}$ and $115\,{\rm μs}$, respectively. Furthermore, we find that using the resonant mode can improve the parameter estimation for the BBH from the ringdown by up to one order of magnitude. Utilizing the resonant mode significantly limits the detection of the frequency of the QNMs but improves the detection error of the damping times by one to four orders of magnitude.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

GW190521: a binary black hole merger inside an active galactic nucleus?

GW190521, the most massive binary black hole merger confidently detected by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, is the first gravitational-wave observation of an intermediate-mass black hole. The signal was followed approximately 34 days later by flare ZTF19abanrhr, detected in AGN J124942.3+344929 by the Zwicky Transient Facility at the 78% spatial contour for GW190521s sky localization. Using the GWTC-2.1 data release, we find that the association between GW190521 and flare ZTF19abanrhr as its electromagnetic counterpart is preferred over a random coincidence of the two transients with a log Bayes factor of 8.6, corresponding to an odds ratio of $\sim$ 5400 to 1 for equal prior odds and $\sim$ 400 to 1 assuming an astrophysical prior odds of 1/13. Given the association, the multi-messenger signal allows for an estimation of the Hubble constant, finding $H_0 = 102^{+27}_{-25}\mathrm{\ km \ s^{-1} \ Mpc^{-1}}$ when solely analyzing GW190521 and $79.2^{+17.6}_{-9.6}\mathrm{\ km \ s^{-1} \ Mpc^{-1}}$ assuming prior information from the binary neutron star merger GW170817, both consistent with the existing literature.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

How the spherical modes of gravitational waves can be detected despite only seeing one ray

The spherical modes of gravitational waves (GWs) have become a major focus of recent detection campaigns due to the additional information they can provide about different properties of the source. However, GW detection is restricted to only detecting one ray and hence it is not obvious how we can extract information about angular properties. In this paper, we introduce a new gauge that makes visible GW detection does not only contain information on the second time derivative but also on the angular derivatives of the GW. In particular, we show that the angular derivatives are of the same order as the time derivatives of the wave thus allowing us to constrain the spherical modes. To further illustrate the detection of the spherical modes, we discuss how the evolution of the orbit of the source and thus the phase of the wave depends on them.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Detection of astrophysical gravitational wave sources by TianQin and LISA

TianQin and LISA are space-based laser interferometer gravitational wave (GW) detectors planned to be launched in the mid-2030s. Both detectors will detect low-frequency GWs around $10^{-2}\,{\rm Hz}$, however, TianQin is more sensitive to frequencies above this common sweet-spot while LISA is more sensitive to frequencies below $10^{-2}\,{\rm Hz}$. Therefore, TianQin and LISA will be able to detect the same sources but with different accuracy depending on the source and its parameters. We consider some of the most important astrophysical sources -- massive black hole binaries, stellar-mass black hole binaries, double white dwarfs, extreme mass ratio inspirals, light and heavy intermediate mass ratio inspirals, as well as the stochastic gravitational background of astrophysical origin -- that TianQin and LISA will be able to detect. For each of these sources, we analyze how far they can be detected (detection distance) and how well their parameters can be measured (detection accuracy) using a Fisher Matrix analysis. We compare the results obtained by the three detection scenarios (TianQin alone, LISA alone, and joint detection by LISA and TianQin) highlighting the gains from joint detection as well as the contribution of TianQin and LISA to a combined study of astrophysical sources. In particular, we consider the different orientations, lifetimes, and duty cycles of the two detectors to explore how they can give a more complete picture when working together.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

SgrA$^{*}$ spin and mass estimates through the detection of an extremely large mass-ratio inspiral

Estimating the spin of ${\rm SgrA^\ast}$ is one of the current challenges we face in understanding the center of our Galaxy. In the present work, we show that detecting the gravitational waves (GWs) emitted by a brown dwarf inspiraling around ${\rm SgrA^\ast}$ will allow us to measure the mass and the spin of ${\rm SgrA^\ast}$ with unprecedented accuracy. Such systems are known as extremely large mass-ratio inspirals (XMRIs) and are expected to be abundant and loud sources in our galactic center. We consider XMRIs with a fixed orbital inclination and different spins of ${\rm SgrA^\ast}$ ($s$) between 0.1 and 0.9. For both cases, we obtain the number of circular and eccentric XMRIs expected to be detected by space-borne GW detectors like LISA and TianQin. We find that if the orbit is eccentric, then we expect to always have several XMRIs in band while for almost circular XMRIs, we only expect to have one source in band if ${\rm SgrA^\ast}$ is highly spinning. We later perform a Fisher matrix analysis to show that by detecting a single XMRI the mass of ${\rm SgrA^\ast}$ can be determined with an accuracy of the order $10^{-2}\,\text{M}_{\odot}$, while the spin can be measured with an accuracy between $10^{-7}$ and $10^{-4}$ depending on the orbital parameters of the XMRI.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Massive Black Hole Binaries as LISA Precursors in the Roman High Latitude Time Domain Survey

With its capacity to observe $\sim 10^{5-6}$ faint active galactic nuclei (AGN) out to redshift $z\approx 6$, Roman is poised to reveal a population of $10^{4-6}\, {\rm M_\odot}$ black holes during an epoch of vigorous galaxy assembly. By measuring the light curves of a subset of these AGN and looking for periodicity, Roman can identify several hundred massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) with 5-12 day orbital periods, which emit copious gravitational radiation and will inevitably merge on timescales of $10^{3-5}$ years. During the last few months of their merger, such binaries are observable with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), a joint ESA/NASA gravitational wave mission set to launch in the mid-2030s. Roman can thus find LISA precursors, provide uniquely robust constraints on the LISA source population, help identify the host galaxies of LISA mergers, and unlock the potential of multi-messenger astrophysics with massive black hole binaries.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2023

Detecting intermediate-mass black hole binaries with atom interferometer observatories: Using the resonant mode for the merger phase

Atom interferometry detectors like AION, ZAIGA, and AEDGE will be able to detect gravitational waves (GWs) at dHz covering the band between large space-based laser interferometers LISA/TianQin/Taiji and ground-based facilities LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA. They will detect the late inspiral and merger of GW sources containing intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) in the mass range $10^2-10^5\,{\rm M_\odot}$. We study how accurately the parameters of an IMBH binary can be measured using the noise curve of AION. Furthermore, we propose a detection scheme where the early inspiral of the binary is detected using the regular broadband mode while the merger is detected using the resonant mode. We find that by using such a detection scheme the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the detection as well as the detection accuracy of the parameters can be enhanced compared to the full detection of the signal using the broadband mode. We, further, assess the impact of the necessary detection gap while switching from broadband to resonant mode studying the case of a short ($30\,{\rm s}$) and a long ($600\,{\rm s}$) gap. We find that the improvement in SNR and detection accuracy is bigger for the shorter gap but that even in the case of the long gap such a scheme can be beneficial.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Calculating the Gravitational Waves Emitted from High-speed Sources

The possibility of forming gravitational-wave sources with high center-of-mass (c.m.) velocities in the vicinity of supermassive black holes requires us to develop a method of deriving the waveform in the observer's frame. Here we show that in the limit where the c.m. velocity is high but the relative velocities of the components of the source are small, we can solve the problem by directly integrating the relaxed Einstein field equation. In particular, we expand the result into multipole components which can be conveniently calculated given the orbit of the source in the observer's frame. Our numerical calculations using arbitrary c.m. velocities show that the result is consistent with the Lorentz transformation of GWs to the leading order of the radiation field. Moreover, we show an example of using this method to calculate the waveform of a scattering event between the high-speed ($\sim 0.1c$) stellar objects embedded in the accretion disk of an active galactic nucleus. Our multipole-expansion method not only has advantages in analyzing the results from stellar-dynamical models but also provides new insight into the multipole properties of the GWs emitted from a high-speed source.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Moving gravitational wave sources at cosmological distances: Impact on the measurement of the Hubble constant

Standard sirens - GW sources with an EM counterpart - can be used to measure H_0 directly which should help to ease the existing Hubble tension. However, if the source has a relative velocity to the expanding universe on top of its motion due to the Hubble flow, a relativistic redshift affects the redshift of the EM counterpart and the apparent distance of the GW source, and thus it needs to be corrected to obtain accurate measurements. We study the effect of such a relative velocity on GWs for a source in an expanding universe showing that the total redshift of the wave is equal to the product of the relativistic redshift and the cosmological redshift. We, further, find that a relative velocity of the source changes its apparent distance by a factor (1+z_rel)^2 in contrast to a linear factor for the cosmological redshift. We discuss that the additional factor for the relativistic redshift is a consequence of a velocity-dependent amplitude for GWs. We consider the effect of the relative velocity on the chirp mass and the apparent distance of the source an observer would infer when ignoring this velocity. We find that for different astrophysical scenarios the error can range between 0.1 % and 7 % for the chirp mass while the error in the apparent distance can be between 0.25 % and 15 %. Furthermore, we consider the error introduced in the measurement of H_0 using standard sirens for two cases: (i) when the effect of velocity on the redshift of the EM counterpart is considered but not on the apparent distance obtained from GWs and (ii) when the effect of the relative velocity is ignored completely. We find that in the first case the error can reach 1 % for a source moving due to the peculiar velocity of its host galaxy and that in the second case the error can be more than 5 % for a source at the distance of GW150914 with the same velocity.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Excitation of gravitational wave modes by a center-of-mass velocity of the source

Most gravitational wave (GW) sources are moving relative to us. This motion is often closely related to the environment of the source and can thus provide crucial information about the formation of the source and its host. Recently, LIGO and Virgo detected for the first time the subdominant modes of GWs. We show that a motion of the center-of-mass of the source can affect these modes, where the effect is proportional to the velocity of the source. The effect on the GW modes in turn affects the overall frequency of the GW, thus leading to a phase shift. We study the impact of this effect on LIGO/Virgo detections and show that it is detectable for sources with high mass ratios and inclinations. This effect breaks the degeneracy between mass and Doppler shift in GW observations, and opens a new possibility of detecting the motion of a GW source even for constant velocities.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2021

Exciting modes due to the aberration of gravitational waves: Measurability for extreme-mass-ratio inspirals

Gravitational waves from a source moving relative to us can suffer from special-relativistic effects such as aberration. The required velocities for these to be significant are on the order of $1000\,\textrm{km s}^{-1}$. This value corresponds to the velocity dispersion that one finds in clusters of galaxies. Hence, we expect a large number of gravitational-wave sources to have such effects imprinted in their signals. In particular, the signal from a moving source will have its higher modes excited, i.e., $(3,3)$ and beyond. We derive expressions describing this effect, and study its measurability for the specific case of a circular, non-spinning extreme-mass-ratio inspiral. We find that the excitation of higher modes by a peculiar velocity of $1000\,\textrm{km\,s}^{-1}$ is detectable for such inspirals with signal-to-noise ratios of $\gtrsim20$. Using a Fisher matrix analysis, we show that the velocity of the source can be measured to a precision of just a few percent for a signal-to-noise ratio of 100. If the motion of the source is ignored parameter estimates could be biased, e.g., the estimated masses of the components through a Doppler shift. Conversely, by including this effect in waveform models, we could measure the velocity dispersion of clusters of galaxies at distances inaccessible to light.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Phase shift of gravitational waves induced by aberration

The velocity of a gravitational wave (GW) source provides crucial information about its formation and evolution processes. Previous studies considered the Doppler effect on the phase of GWs as a potential signature of a time-dependent velocity of the source. However, the Doppler shift only accounts for the time component of the wave vector, and in principle motion also affects the spatial components. The latter effect, known as ``aberration'' for light, is analyzed in this paper for GWs and applied to the waveform modeling of an accelerating source. We show that the additional aberrational phase shift could be detectable in two astrophysical scenarios, namely, a recoiling binary black hole (BBH) due to GW radiation and a BBH in a triple system. Our results suggest that adding the aberrational phase shift in the waveform templates could significantly enhance the detectability of moving sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Detecting the Beaming Effect of Gravitational Waves

The models currently used in the detection of gravitational waves (GWs) either do not consider a relative motion between the center-of-mass of the source and the observer, or usually only consider its effect on the frequencies of GWs. However, it is known for light waves that a relative motion not only changes the frequencies but also the brightness of the source, the latter of which is called the `beaming effect'. Here we investigate such an effect for GWs and find that the observed amplitude of a GW signal, unlike the behavior of light, is not a monotonic function of the relative velocity and responds differently to the two GW polarizations. We attribute the difference to a rotation of the wave-vector, as well as a reorientation of the GW polarizations. We find that even for velocities as small as $0.25\%$ of the speed of light, ignoring the aforementioned beaming effect could induce a systematic error that is larger than the designated calibration accuracy of LIGO. This error could lead to an incorrect estimation of the distance and orbital inclination of a GW source, or result in a spurious signal that appears to be incompatible with general relativity.

astro-ph.HE↗