Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

János Takátsy

Publications and source records attributed to János Takátsy.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A parametrized test of general relativity for inspiralling eccentric binaries in LISA

The space-based detector Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will observe inspiralling black hole binaries in the mHz band, many of which may retain orbital eccentricity. In contrast to quasicircular binaries, eccentric systems radiate through multiple orbital harmonics, while relativistic periastron precession introduces a secular phase structure in the waveform. We exploit this structure to develop a parametrized test of general relativity (GR) for eccentric bound orbits. We construct a frequency-domain eccentric waveform model in which a phenomenological deviation parameter $δα$ modifies the GR prediction for the conservative azimuthal-to-radial frequency ratio, with $δα=0$ corresponding to GR. We consider two parametrizations of this deformation. In the first, $δα$ modifies only the explicit precession-dependent sideband structures of the waveform. In the second, the secular precession phase is assigned to the dominant lower-order angular carriers and retained in resummed form. The latter produces a substantially stronger response because the dominant waveform components coherently accumulate the modified phase. We implement both models within \textsc{lisabeta} and perform a Bayesian analysis including the time- and frequency-dependent LISA response and associated time-delay-interferometry observables. We find that LISA can place stringent constraints on the parametrized deviation. For a binary with chirp mass $3000 M_{\odot}$, initial eccentricity $e_0=0.5$ observed for four years at an SNR of $50$, the second model yields a $90\%$ credible bound of $|δα|\lesssim 10^{-4}$. Increasing eccentricity further sharpens the constraints by introducing additional harmonic structure and reducing degeneracies among the binary parameters. The framework developed here is general and can be extended to more complete eccentric waveform models.

gr-qc↗

Large Gravitational Wave Phase Shifts from Strong 3-body Interactions in Dense Stellar Clusters

The phase evolution of gravitational waves (GWs) can be modulated by the astrophysical environment surrounding the source, which provides a probe for the origin of individual binary black holes (BBHs) using GWs alone. We here study the evolving phase of the GW waveform derived from a large set of simulations of BBH mergers forming in dense stellar clusters through binary-single interactions. We uncover that a well-defined fraction of the assembled eccentric GW sources will have a notable GW phase shift induced by the remaining third object. The magnitude of the GW phase shift often exceeds conservative analytical estimates due to strong 3-body interactions, which occasionally results in GW sources with clearly shifted and perturbed GW waveforms. This opens up promising opportunities for current and future GW detectors, as observing such a phase shift can identify the formation environment of a BBH, as well as help to characterise the local properties of its surrounding environment.

astro-ph.HE↗

Environmental effects in stellar mass gravitational wave sources II: Enhanced detectability of phase shifts in eccentric sub-populations

We demonstrate that the properties of eccentric gravitational wave (GW) signals enhance the detectability of GW phase shifts caused by environmental effects (EEs): The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of EEs can be boosted by up to $\ell_{\rm max}^{1 - n}$ with respect to corresponding circular signals, where $\ell_{\rm max}$ is the highest modeled eccentric GW harmonic and $n$ is the frequency scaling of the GW dephasing prescription associated to the EE. We investigate the impact on a population level, adopting plausible eccentricity distributions for binary sources observed by LIGO/Virgo/Kagra (A+ and A\# sensitivities), as well as Cosmic Explorer (CE) and the Einstein Telescope (ET). For sources in the high eccentricity tail of a distribution ($e \gtrsim 0.2$ at 10 Hz), phase shifts can systematically be up to $\ell_{\rm max}^{1 - n}$ times smaller than in a corresponding circular signal and still be detectable. For typical EEs, such as Roemer delays and gas drag, this effect amounts to SNR enhancements that range from $10^2$ up to $10^5$. For CE and ET, our analysis shows that EEs will be an ubiquitous feature in the eccentric tail of merging binaries, regardless of the specific details of the formation channel. Additionally, we find that the joint analysis of eccentricity and phase shift is already plausible in current catalogs if a fraction of binaries merge in AGN migration traps.

astro-ph.HE↗

Dynamics of Relativistic Binaries in Structured and Stochastic Environments: A Lagrange-Fourier-Hansen Framework

We develop a general framework to characterize non-vacuum perturbations to relativistic binaries in the gravitational-wave (GW) driven regime, for use in GW parameter estimation studies. The effect of smooth, structured and stochastic perturbations to the binary's motion is reduced to a resonant spectral projection defined on a rolling averaging window, with weights given by Hansen coefficients. This is combined with practical criteria for identifying and evaluating the corresponding dynamical response to perturbations, starting from either analytical models or numerical simulations of binaries in environments. The result is a set of coupled ODEs for the orbital elements that capture epi-cyclic, apsidal and nodal resonances, consistently incorporate feedback from radiation reaction and can be solved efficiently on a coarse time grid. We demonstrate the practical application of the framework in two representative astrophysical scenarios: a compact binary in a variable tidal field and an extreme-mass-ratio inspiral in an accretion disk. We propose the Lagrange-Fourier-Hansen framework as a unified tool for modeling environmental effects in GW templates for eccentric and precessing binary sources, and particularly for bridging the gap between phenomenological prescriptions and realistic models of binaries in environments.

gr-qc↗

Astrophysical constraints on the cold equation of state of the strongly interacting matter

At present, the only experimental access to the properties of cold, dense strongly interacting matter is provided by astrophysical observations. Neutron stars are the only known systems in the Universe that reach densities several times higher than normal nuclear density at nearly zero temperature, making them unique laboratories for studying dense matter. Since most neutron star observables are sensitive to the equation of state (EOS), observational data place stringent constraints on the EOS of strongly interacting matter. In this work, we investigate constraints arising from perturbative QCD calculations at asymptotically high densities ($ρ\approx 40 ρ_0$), the mass of the heaviest observed neutron star (a black widow pulsar), NICER mass-radius measurements, and the tidal deformability inferred from the binary neutron star merger GW170817. We parametrize the EOS and allow its parameters to vary freely, using observational data to constrain the admissible parameter space. We find that neutron star observations significantly restrict the EOS of dense strongly interacting matter. While NICER has already provided measurements for five pulsars, the associated uncertainties remain relatively large. Within our modeling framework, we find that the existence of very massive neutron stars and constraints on the tidal deformability provide the most restrictive constraints on the EOS.

astro-ph.HE↗

Orbital eccentricity can make neutron star g-mode resonances observable with current gravitational-wave detectors

Dynamical tides can provide us vital information about the properties of neutron star (NS) matter. This is particularly true for g-modes, whose frequency and tidal coupling are highly sensitive to the composition of NSs, especially in their centers, where microphysical models are the least reliable. However, due to their weak coupling to external tidal fields, their effect on the gravitational-wave (GW) signal of binary inspirals can be difficult to observe. Here we show that the detectability of these tides can be significantly enhanced by binary NSs with moderate eccentricities. This is primarily due to higher eccentric harmonics in the early phase of the binary evolution experiencing larger phase shifts, which they transport to the sensitive band of GW detectors. In addition, g-mode tides in eccentric binaries undergo several epicyclic resonances, which also amplify the total phase shift. We demonstrate that these effects increase the detectability of g-mode dynamical tides by more than an order of magnitude for eccentricities of $e_\mathrm{10Hz}\sim0.2-0.4$, making it possible to put robust constraints on g-mode properties using current GW detectors, while all relevant models could potentially be constrained with eccentric binary NSs with Einstein Telescope.

astro-ph.HE↗

Towards gravitational wave parameter inference for binaries with an eccentric companion

We introduce a complete model for dephasing due to line-of-sight acceleration (LOSA) in gravitational wave (GW) signals from stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) in three-body systems. Our prescription provides curvature- and projection-dependent phase features that are not recovered by local-expansion-based treatments. We perform parameter-space surveys and mock parameter inferences assuming the nominal sensitivity of the Einstein Telescope (ET) to identify the regime where the time-varying LOSA allows for separate constraints on the outer orbital parameters, in particular the tertiary mass and distance. We estimate that ET may detect a few to tens of such systems per year, provided that all binaries merge dynamically, and demonstrate that these constraints can be used to directly discriminate between a dynamical and AGN origin for BBHs. Finally, we reanalyse the GW190814 event and four O4a events finding no evidence for LOSA, with the previously claimed LOSA in GW190814 disappearing when a sufficiently long data segment is used.

astro-ph.HE↗

Importance of relativistic pericenter precession in identifying the presence of a third body near eccentric binaries

Many astrophysical processes can produce gravitational wave (GW) sources with significant orbital eccentricity. These binaries emit bursts of gravitational radiation during each pericenter passage. In isolated systems, the intrinsic timing of these bursts is solely determined by the properties of the binary. The presence of a nearby third body perturbs the system and alters the burst timing. Accurately modeling such perturbations therefore offers a novel approach to detecting the presence of a nearby companion. Existing timing models account for Newtonian dynamics and leading-order radiation reaction effects but neglect the higher order post-Newtonian (PN) contributions to the inner binary. In this paper, we present an improved timing model that incorporates conservative PN corrections that lead to the precession of the binary's pericenter. We find that these PN corrections significantly impact the binary's orbital evolution and the timing of the GW burst. In particular, 1PN precession gives rise to distinctive modulation features in the binary's semilatus rectum and eccentricity. These modulations encode valuable information about the presence and properties of the third body, including its mass and distance. Furthermore, unmodeled 1PN effects significantly bias the tertiary's mass and distance. Finally we assess the detectability of GW bursts from such perturbed systems and demonstrate that the inclusion of PN corrections is crucial for accurately capturing the orbital dynamics of hierarchical triples.

gr-qc↗

Probing the Formation Environment of Strongly Lensed Black Hole Mergers: Implications for the AGN-disk Channel

The observation of multiple images from a strongly lensed gravitational wave (GW) source provides the observer with a stereoscopic view of the source. This allows for a measure of its relative proper motion by comparing the induced GW Doppler shifts between the different images. In addition, if the GW source is in a dynamical environment it will be subject to an acceleration, which will show up as a time dependent Doppler shift in each individual image. In this work we quantify for the first time how a joint detection of these effects can be used to constrain the underlying dynamics and environment of the lensed GW source. We consider a range of different astrophysical environments, from massive clusters to stellar triples, and find that binary black hole (BBH) mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei disks (AGN-disks) are particularly likely to have orbital parameters that can be constrained through our considered lensing setup. Applying these methods to the upcoming catalog of cosmologically strongly lensed GW sources will open up new possibilities for probing their origin and underlying formation mechanisms.

astro-ph.HE↗

Gravitational Wave Phase shifts of black hole mergers in AGN Disks

Ground-based gravitational wave (GW) detectors have discovered about 200 compact object mergers. The astrophysical origins of these events are highly debated, and it is possible that at least a fraction of them originate from dynamical environments. Among these, the disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are particularly interesting as promising environments, as some observed properties may be more readily produced there. When compact objects merge in these environments, acceleration from the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) or nearby companions is inevitable. Such acceleration induces a phase shift in the observed GW waveforms, which can serve as a useful tool to distinguish the underlying merging environments for each GW event. In this paper, we investigate the expected distribution of such acceleration-induced GW phase shifts, using a semi-analytical model combined with a one-dimensional AGN population synthesis code. We find significant contributions from three-body interactions involving a nearby third object. Our results indicate that the GW phase shift is likely to be larger compared to other channels, making it distinguishable by future GW facilities such as TianQin, DECIGO, Taiji, Einstein Telescope, and Cosmic Explorer. Interestingly, a notable fraction of mergers in fact exhibit a significant GW phase shift ($\gtrsim~{\rm 1\ rad}$) at frequencies above $10~{\rm Hz}$, which could even be detectable by current GW detectors such as LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA. Additionally, if gas-hardening during three-body interactions is taken into account, the GW frequency can be boosted to $\gtrsim 10~{\rm Hz}$, potentially further aiding in the detection of the phase shift.

astro-ph.HE↗

The construction and use of dephasing prescriptions for environmental effects in gravitational wave astronomy

In the first part of this work, we provide a curated overview of the theoretical framework necessary for incorporating dephasing due to environmental effects (EE) in gravitational wave (GW) templates. We focus in particular on the relationship between orbital perturbations in the time-domain and the resulting dephasing in both time and frequency domain, elucidating and resolving some inconsistencies present in the literature. We discuss how commonly studied binary environments often result in several sources of dephasing that affect the GW signal at the same time. This work synthesizes insights from two decades of literature, offering a unified conceptual narrative alongside a curated reference of key formulas, illustrative examples and methodological prescriptions. It can serve both as a reference for researchers in the field as well as a modern introduction for those who wish to enter it. In the second part, we derive novel aspects of dephasing for eccentric GW sources and lay the foundations for consistently treating the full problem. Importantly, we demonstrate that the detectability of EEs can be significantly enhanced in the presence of eccentricity, even for $e_\mathrm{10Hz}\lesssim0.2$, substantially increasing the prospects for detection in ground based detectors. Our results highlight the unique potential of modeling and searching for EE in eccentric binary sources of GWs.

astro-ph.HE↗

Amplified capture rate of dark matter in compact binaries and constraints on bosonic dark matter from GW170817

The accretion of dark matter (DM) onto compact objects and the potential gravitational collapse of neutron stars due to this accretion has become a promising indirect probe of DM properties, complementing terrestrial experiments. We show that the accretion flux of DM on stellar objects is amplified in binary systems due to the complex gravitational interaction of said particles with the binary. We perform few-body Monte Carlo simulations to show that this amplification factor is $\sim4-5$ for circular binaries, small DM velocity dispersions and mass ratios $q\gtrsim0.3$. We use this factor to improve previous constraints on the scattering cross section of non-annihilating bosonic DM with baryonic matter, and derive upper bounds on this cross section from the observation of the binary NS merger associated with GW170817. We also show that the maximally accretable mass fraction of DM by binary NSs is $\lesssim10^{-3}$, even for extreme DM densities only possible in DM spikes, due to the dynamical friction exerted by the ambient DM.

astro-ph.HE↗

Environmental effects in stellar mass gravitational wave sources I: Expected fraction of signals with significant dephasing in the dynamical and AGN channels

We present the first overview of the expected quantity of signals which will showcase significant gravitational wave phase shifts caused by astrophysical environments, considering the upcoming A+ and A\# LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA, Cosmic Explorer and Einstein Telescope detectors. We construct and analyse two general families of dephasing prescriptions with extensions to eccentric sources, as well as collect five specific prescriptions for the fundamental smoking gun physical mechanisms at play in the dynamical and AGN formation channel for stellar mass binary black holes: Roemer delays, tidal forces and hydrodynamical interactions. We compute the expected fraction of signals containing astrophysical dephasing, as a function of environmental properties and based on observed distributions of binary parameters. We find that next generation detectors can expect to find environmental effects in hundreds of detected signals.

astro-ph.HE↗

Dissecting environmental effects with eccentric gravitational wave sources

We model the effect of resonances between time-varying perturbative forces and the epi-cyclical motion of eccentric binaries in the gravitational wave (GW) driven regime. These induce secular drifts in the orbital elements which are reflected in a dephasing of the binary's GW signal, derived here systematically. The resulting dephasing prescriptions showcase a much richer phenomenology with respect to typically adopted power-laws, and are better able to model realistic environmental effects (EE). The most important consequences are for gas embedded binaries, which we analyse in detail with a series of analytical calculations, numerical experiments and a curated set of hydrodynamical simulations for equal masses. Even in these simplified tests, we find the surprising result that dephasing caused by epi-cyclical resonances dominate over expectations based on smoothed or orbit averaged gas drag models in GW signals that retain mild eccentricity in the detector band ($e> 0.05$). We discuss how dissecting GW dephasing in its component Fourier modes can be used to probe the coupling of binaries with their surrounding environment in unprecedented detail.

astro-ph.HE↗

Observability of dynamical tides in merging eccentric neutron star binaries

While dynamical tides only become relevant during the last couple of orbits for circular inspirals, orbital eccentricity can increase their impact during earlier phases of the inspiral by exciting tidal oscillations at each close encounter. We investigate the effect of dynamical tides on the orbital evolution of eccentric neutron star binaries using post-Newtonian numerical simulations and construct an analytic stochastic model that reproduces the numerical results. Our study reveals a strong dependence of dynamical tides on the pericenter distance, with the fractional energy transferred to dynamical tides over that dissipated in gravitational waves (GWs) exceeding $\sim1\%$ at separations $r_\mathrm{p}\lesssim50$ km for large eccentricities. We demonstrate that the effect of dynamical tides on orbital evolution can manifest as a phase shift in the GW signal. We show that the signal-to-noise ratio of the GW phase shift can reach the detectability threshold of $8$ with a single aLIGO detector at design densitivity for eccentric neutron star binaries at a distance of $40$ Mpc. This requires a pericenter distance of $r_\mathrm{p0}\lesssim68$ km ($r_\mathrm{p0}\lesssim76$ km) at binary formation with eccentricity close to $1$ for a reasonable tidal deformability and f-mode frequency of $500$ and $1.73$ kHz ($700$ and $1.61$ kHz), respectively. The observation of the phase shift will enable measuring the f-mode frequency of neutron stars independently from their tidal deformability, providing significant insights into neutron star seismology and the properties of the equation of state. We also explore the potential of distinguishing between equal-radius and twin-star binaries, which could provide an opportunity to reveal strong first-order phase transitions in the nuclear equation of state.

astro-ph.HE↗

What neutron stars tell about the hadron-quark phase transition: a Bayesian study

The existence of quark matter inside the heaviest neutron stars has been the topic of numerous recent studies, many of them suggesting that a phase transition to strongly interacting conformal matter inside neutron stars is feasible. Here we examine this hybrid star scenario using a soft and a stiff hadronic model, a constituent quark model with three quark flavours, and applying a smooth crossover transition between the two. Within a Bayesian framework, we study the effect of up-to-date constraints from neutron star observations on the equation-of-state parameters and various neutron star observables. Our results show that a pure quark core is only possible if the maximum mass of neutron stars is below $\sim2.35~M_\odot$. However, we also find, consistently with other studies, that a peak in the speed of sound, exceeding $1/3$, is highly favoured by astrophysical measurements, which might indicate the percolation of hadrons at $\sim3-4n_0$. Even though our prediction for the phase transition parameters varies depending on the specific astrophysical constraints utilized, the position of the speed of sound peak only changes slightly, while the existence of pure quark matter below $\sim4 n_0$, using our parameterization, is disfavoured. On the other hand, the preferred range for the EoS shows signs of conformality above $\sim4n_0$. Additionally, we present the difference in the upper bounds of radius estimates using the full probability density data and sharp cut-offs, and stress the necessity of using the former.

astro-ph.HE↗

GRBAlpha: the smallest astrophysical space observatory -- Part 1: Detector design, system description and satellite operations

Aims. Since launched on 2021 March 22, the 1U-sized CubeSat GRBAlpha operates and collects scientific data on high-energy transients, making it the smallest astrophysical space observatory to date. GRBAlpha is an in-obit demonstration of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detector concept suitably small to fit into a standard 1U volume. As it was demonstrated in a companion paper, GRBAlpha adds significant value to the scientific community with accurate characterization of bright GRBs, including the recent outstanding event of GRB 221009A. Methods. The GRB detector is a 75x75x5 mm CsI(Tl) scintillator wrapped in a reflective foil (ESR) read out by an array of SiPM detectors, multi-pixel photon counters by Hamamatsu, driven by two separate, redundant units. To further protect the scintillator block from sunlight and protect the SiPM detectors from particle radiation, we apply a multi-layer structure of Tedlar wrapping, anodized aluminium casing and a lead-alloy shielding on one edge of the assembly. The setup allows observations of gamma radiation within the energy range of 70-890 keV with an energy resolution of ~30%. Results. Here, we summarize the system design of the GRBAlpha mission, including the electronics and software components of the detector, some aspects of the platform as well as the current way of semi-autonomous operations. In addition, details are given about the raw data products and telemetry in order to encourage the community for expansion of the receiver network for our initiatives with GRBAlpha and related experiments.

astro-ph.IM↗

Attitude determination for nano-satellites -- II. Dead reckoning with a multiplicative extended Kalman filter

This paper is the second part of a series of studies discussing a novel attitude determination method for nano-satellites. Our approach is based on the utilization of thermal imaging sensors to determine the direction of the Sun and the nadir with respect to the satellite with sub-degree accuracy. The proposed method is planned to be applied during the Cubesats Applied for MEasuring and LOcalising Transients (CAMELOT) mission aimed at detecting and localizing gamma-ray bursts with an efficiency and accuracy comparable to large gamma-ray space observatories. In this paper we introduce a simulation model aimed at testing the applicability of our attitude determination approach. Its first part simulates the orbit and rotation of a satellite with arbitrary initial conditions while its second part applies our attitude determination algorithm which is based on a multiplicative extended Kalman filter. The simulated satellite is assumed to be equipped with a GPS system, MEMS gyroscopes and the infrasensors. These instruments provide the required data input for the Kalman filter. We demonstrate the applicability of our attitude determination algorithm by simulating the motion of a nano-satellite on Low Earth Orbit. Our results show that the attitude determination may have a 1$σ$ error of $\sim30'$ even with a large gyroscope drift during the orbital periods when the infrasensors provide both the direction of the Sun and the Earth (the nadir). This accuracy is an improvement on the point source detection accuracy of the infrasensors. However, the attitude determination error can get as high as 25$^{\circ}$ during periods when the Sun is occulted by the Earth. We show that following an occultation period the attitude information is immediately recovered by the Kalman filter once the Sun is observed again.

astro-ph.IM↗