arXiv subjects

Luciano Rezzolla

Publications and source records attributed to Luciano Rezzolla.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Tidal deformability and gravitational-wave phase evolution of magnetised compact-star binaries

The evolution of the gravitational-wave phase in the signal produced by inspiralling binaries of compact stars is modified by the nonzero deformability of the two stars. Hence, the measurement of these corrections has the potential of providing important information on the equation of state of nuclear matter. Extensive work has been carried out over the last decade to quantify these corrections, but it has so far been restricted to stars with zero intrinsic magnetic fields. While the corrections introduced by the magnetic tension and magnetic pressure are expected to be subdominant, it is nevertheless useful to determine the precise conditions under which these corrections become important. To address this question, we have carried out a second-order perturbative analysis of the tidal deformability of magnetised compact stars under a variety of magnetic-field strengths and equations of state describing either neutron stars or quark stars. Overall, we find that magnetically induced corrections to the tidal deformability will produce changes in the gravitational-wave phase evolution that are unlikely to be detected for realistic magnetic field i.e., $B\sim 10^{10} - 10^{12}\,{\rm G}$. At the same time, if the magnetic field is unrealistically large, i.e., $B\sim 10^{16}\,{\rm G}$, these corrections would produce a sizeable contribution to the phase evolution, especially for quark stars. In the latter case, the induced phase differences would represent a unique tool to measure the properties of the magnetic fields, providing information that is otherwise hard to quantify.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

A lower bound on the maximum mass if the secondary in GW190814 was once a rapidly spinning neutron star

The recent detection of GW190814 featured the merger of a binary with a primary having a mass of $\sim 23\,M_{\odot}$ and a secondary with a mass of $\sim 2.6\,M_{\odot}$. While the primary was most likely a black hole, the secondary could be interpreted as either the lightest black hole or the most massive neutron star ever observed, but also as the indication of a novel class of exotic compact objects. We here argue that the secondary in GW190814 needs not be an ab-initio black hole nor an exotic object; rather, based on our current understanding of the nuclear-matter equation of state, it can be a rapidly rotating neutron star that collapsed to a rotating black hole at some point before merger. Using universal relations connecting the masses and spins of uniformly rotating neutron stars, we estimate the spin, $0.49 \lesssim χ\lesssim 0.68$, of the secondary -- a quantity not constrained so far by the detection -- and a novel strict lower bound on the maximum mass, $M_{\rm TOV} > 2.08^{+0.04}_{-0.04}\, \,M_{\odot}$, of nonrotating neutron stars, consistent with recent observations of a very massive pulsar. The new lower bound also remains valid even in the less likely scenario in which the secondary neutron star never collapsed to a black hole.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Gauge-invariant Non-spherical Metric Perturbations of Schwarzschild Black-Hole Spacetimes

The theory of gauge-invariant non-spherical metric perturbations of Schwarzschild black hole spacetimes is now well established. Yet, as different notations and conventions have been used throughout the years, the literature on the subject is often confusing and sometimes confused. The purpose of this paper is to review and collect the relevant expressions related to the Regge-Wheeler and Zerilli equations for the odd and even-parity perturbations of a Schwarzschild spacetime. Special attention is paid to the form they assume in the presence of matter-sources and, for the two most popular conventions in the literature, to the asymptotic expressions and gravitational-wave amplitudes. Besides pointing out some inconsistencies in the literature, the expressions collected here could serve as a quick reference for the calculation of the perturbations of Schwarzschild black hole spacetimes driven by generic sources and for those approaches in which gravitational waves are extracted from numerically generated spacetimes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

How to tell an accreting boson star from a black hole

The capability of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) to image the nearest supermassive black hole candidates at horizon-scale resolutions offers a novel means to study gravity in its strongest regimes and to test different models for these objects. Here, we study the observational appearance at 230 GHz of a surfaceless black hole mimicker, namely a non-rotating boson star, in a scenario consistent with the properties of the accretion flow onto Sgr A*. To this end, we perform general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations followed by general relativistic radiative transfer calculations in the boson star space-time. Synthetic reconstructed images considering realistic astronomical observing conditions show that, despite qualitative similarities, the differences in the appearance of a black hole -- either rotating or not -- and a boson star of the type considered here are large enough to be detectable. These differences arise from dynamical effects directly related to the absence of an event horizon, in particular, the accumulation of matter in the form of a small torus or a spheroidal cloud in the interior of the boson star, and the absence of an evacuated high-magnetization funnel in the polar regions. The mechanism behind these effects is general enough to apply to other horizonless and surfaceless black hole mimickers, strengthening confidence in the ability of the EHT to identify such objects via radio observations.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Accurate mapping of spherically symmetric black holes in a parameterised framework

The Rezzolla-Zhidenko (RZ) framework provides an efficient approach to characterize spherically symmetric black-hole spacetimes in arbitrary metric theories of gravity using a small number of variables [L. Rezzolla and A. Zhidenko, Phys. Rev. D. 90, 084009 (2014)]. These variables can be obtained in principle from near-horizon measurements of various astrophysical processes, thus potentially enabling efficient tests of both black-hole properties and the theory of general relativity in the strong-field regime. Here, we extend this framework to allow for the parametrization of arbitrary asymptotically-flat, spherically symmetric metrics and introduce the notion of a 11-dimensional (11D) parametrization space $Π$, on which each solution can be visualised as a curve or surface. An $\mathscr{L}^2$ norm on this space is used to measure the deviation of a particular compact object solution from the Schwarzschild black-hole solution. We calculate various observables, related to particle and photon orbits, within this framework and demonstrate that the relative errors we obtain are low (about $10^{-6}$). In particular, we obtain the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) frequency, the unstable photon-orbit impact parameter (shadow radius), the entire orbital angular speed profile for circular Kepler observers and the entire lensing deflection angle curve for various types of compact objects, including non-singular and singular black holes, boson stars and naked singularities, from various theories of gravity. Finally, we provide in a tabular form the first 11 coefficients of the fourth-order RZ parameterization needed to describe a variety of commonly used black-hole spacetimes. When comparing with the first-order RZ parameterization of astrophysical observables such as the ISCO frequency, the coefficients provided here increase the accuracy of two orders of magnitude or more.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Two-moment scheme for general-relativistic radiation hydrodynamics: a systematic description and new applications

We provide a systematic description of the steps necessary -- and of the potential pitfalls to be encountered -- when implementing a two-moment scheme within an Implicit-Explicit (IMEX) scheme to include radiative-transfer contributions in numerical simulations of general-relativistic (magneto-)hydrodynamics. We make use of the M1 closure, which provides an exact solution for the optically thin and thick limit, and an interpolation between these limits. Special attention is paid to the efficient solution of the emerging set of implicit conservation equations. In particular, we present an efficient method for solving these equations via the inversion of a $4\times 4$-matrix within an IMEX scheme. While this method relies on a few approximations, it offers a very good compromise between accuracy and computational efficiency. After a large number of tests in special relativity, we couple our new radiation code, \texttt{FRAC}, with the general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics code \texttt{BHAC} to investigate the radiative Michel solution, namely, the problem of spherical accretion onto a black hole in the presence of a radiative field. By performing the most extensive exploration of the parameter space for this problem, we find that the accretion's efficiency can be expressed in terms of physical quantities such as temperature, $T$, luminosity, $L$, and black-hole mass, $M$, via the expression $\varepsilon=(L/L_{\rm Edd})/(\dot{M}/\dot{M}_{\rm Edd})= 7.41\times 10^{-7}\left(T/10^6\,\mathrm{K}\right)^{0.22} \left(L/L_\odot\right)^{0.48} \left(M/M_\odot\right)^{0.48}$, where $L_{\mathrm{Edd}}$ and $\dot{M}_{\mathrm{Edd}}$ are the Eddington luminosity and accretion rate, respectively. Finally, we also consider the accretion problem away from spherical symmetry, finding that the solution is stable under perturbations in the radiation field.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

ExaHyPE: An Engine for Parallel Dynamically Adaptive Simulations of Wave Problems

ExaHyPE ("An Exascale Hyperbolic PDE Engine") is a software engine for solving systems of first-order hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDEs). Hyperbolic PDEs are typically derived from the conservation laws of physics and are useful in a wide range of application areas. Applications powered by ExaHyPE can be run on a student's laptop, but are also able to exploit thousands of processor cores on state-of-the-art supercomputers. The engine is able to dynamically increase the accuracy of the simulation using adaptive mesh refinement where required. Due to the robustness and shock capturing abilities of ExaHyPE's numerical methods, users of the engine can simulate linear and non-linear hyperbolic PDEs with very high accuracy. Users can tailor the engine to their particular PDE by specifying evolved quantities, fluxes, and source terms. A complete simulation code for a new hyperbolic PDE can often be realised within a few hours - a task that, traditionally, can take weeks, months, often years for researchers starting from scratch. In this paper, we showcase ExaHyPE's workflow and capabilities through real-world scenarios from our two main application areas: seismology and astrophysics.

cs.MS↗

arXiv2020

The heavier the better: how to constrain mass ratios and spins of high-mass neutron-star mergers

The first binary neutron-star merger event, GW170817, and its bright electromagnetic counterpart have provided a remarkable amount of information. By contrast, the second event, GW190425, with $M_{\rm tot}=3.4^{+0.3}_{-0.1}\,M_{\odot}$ and the lack of an electromagnetic counterpart, has hardly improved our understanding of neutron-star physics. While GW190425 is compatible with a scenario in which the merger has lead to a prompt collapse to a black hole and little ejected matter to power a counterpart, determining the mass ratio and the effective spin $\tildeχ$ of the binary remains difficult. This is because gravitational waveforms cannot yet well constrain the component spins of the binary. However, since the mass of GW190425 is significantly larger than the maximum mass for nonrotating neutron stars, $M_{_{\rm TOV}}$, the mass ratio $q$ cannot be too small, as the heavier star would not be gravitationally stable. Making use of universal relations and a large number of equations of state, we provide limits in the $(\tildeχ,q)$ plane for GW190425, namely: $q_{\rm min} \geq 0.38$ and $ \tildeχ_{\rm max}\leq 0.20$, assuming $M_\mathrm{tot} \simeq 3.4\, M_\odot$. Finally, we show how future observations of high-mass binaries can provide a lower bound on $M_{_{\rm TOV}}$.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

On the prospects of imaging Sagittarius A* from space

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) at sub-millimeter waves has the potential to image the shadow of the black hole in the Galactic Center, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), and thereby test basic predictions of the theory of general relativity. We investigate the imaging prospects of a new Space VLBI mission concept. The setup consists of two satellites in polar or equatorial circular Medium-Earth Orbits with slightly different radii, resulting in a dense spiral-shaped uv-coverage with long baselines, allowing for extremely high-resolution and high-fidelity imaging of radio sources. We simulate observations of a general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics model of Sgr A* for this configuration with noise calculated from model system parameters. After gridding the $uv$-plane and averaging visibilities accumulated over multiple months of integration, images of Sgr A* with a resolution of up to 4 $μ$as could be reconstructed, allowing for stronger tests of general relativity and accretion models than with ground-based VLBI.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2020

Postmerger Gravitational-Wave Signatures of Phase Transitions in Binary Mergers

With the first detection of gravitational waves from a binary system of neutron stars, GW170817, a new window was opened to study the properties of matter at and above nuclear-saturation density. Reaching densities a few times that of nuclear matter and temperatures up to $100\,\rm{MeV}$, such mergers also represent potential sites for a phase transition (PT) from confined hadronic matter to deconfined quark matter. While the lack of a postmerger signal in GW170817 has prevented us from assessing experimentally this scenario, two theoretical studies have explored the postmerger gravitational-wave signatures of PTs in mergers of binary systems of neutron stars. We here extend and complete the picture by presenting a novel signature of the occurrence of a PT. More specifically, using fully general-relativistic hydrodynamic simulations and employing a suitably constructed equation of state that includes a PT, we present the occurrence of a "delayed PT", i.e. a PT that develops only some time after the merger and produces a metastable object with a quark-matter core, i.e. a hypermassive hybrid star. Because in this scenario, the postmerger signal exhibits two distinct fundamental gravitational-wave frequencies -- before and after the PT -- the associated signature promises to be the strongest and cleanest among those considered so far, and one of the best signatures of the production of quark matter in the present Universe.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Common-envelope Dynamics of a Stellar-mass Black Hole: General Relativistic Simulations

With the goal of providing more accurate and realistic estimates of the secular behavior of the mass accretion and drag rates in the "common-envelope" scenario encountered when a black hole or a neutron star moves in the stellar envelope of a red supergiant star, we have carried out the first general relativistic simulations of the accretion flow onto a nonrotating black hole moving supersonically in a medium with regular but different density gradients. The simulations reveal that the supersonic motion always rapidly reaches a stationary state and it produces a shock cone in the downstream part of the flow. In the absence of density gradients we recover the phenomenology already observed in the well-known Bondi--Hoyle--Lyttleton accretion problem, with super-Eddington mass accretion rate and a shock cone whose axis is stably aligned with the direction of motion. However, as the density gradient is made stronger, the accretion rate also increases and the shock cone is progressively and stably dragged toward the direction of motion. With sufficiently large gradients, the shock-cone axis can become orthogonal to the direction, or even move in the upstream region of the flow in the case of the largest density gradient. Together with the phenomenological aspects of the accretion flow, we have also quantified the rates of accretion of mass and momentum onto the black hole. Simple analytic expressions have been found for the rates of accretion of mass, momentum, drag force, and bremsstrahlung luminosity, all of which have been employed in the astrophysical modelling of the secular evolution of a binary system experiencing a common-envelope evolution...

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Detection of pulses from the Vela pulsar at millimeter wavelengths with phased ALMA

We report on the first detection of pulsed radio emission from a radio pulsar with the ALMA telescope. The detection was made in the Band-3 frequency range (85-101 GHz) using ALMA in the phased-array mode developed for VLBI observations. A software pipeline has been implemented to enable a regular pulsar observing mode in the future. We describe the pipeline and demonstrate the capability of ALMA to perform pulsar timing and searching. We also measure the flux density and polarization properties of the Vela pulsar (PSR J0835$-$4510) at mm-wavelengths, providing the first polarimetric study of any ordinary pulsar at frequencies above 32 GHz. Finally, we discuss the lessons learned from the Vela observations for future pulsar studies with ALMA, particularly for searches near the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Center, and the potential of using pulsars for polarization calibration of ALMA.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Beyond second-order convergence in simulations of magnetised binary neutron stars with realistic microphysics

We investigate the impact of using high-order numerical methods to study the merger of magnetised neutron stars with finite-temperature microphysics and neutrino cooling in full general relativity. By implementing a fourth-order accurate conservative finite-difference scheme we model the inspiral together with the early post-merger and highlight the differences to traditional second-order approaches at the various stages of the simulation. We find that even for finite-temperature equations of state, convergence orders higher than second order can be achieved in the inspiral and post-merger for the gravitational-wave phase. We further demonstrate that the second-order scheme overestimates the amount of proton-rich shock-heated ejecta, which can have an impact on the modelling of the dynamical part of the kilonova emission. Finally, we show that already at low resolution the growth rate of the magnetic energy is consistently resolved by using a fourth-order scheme.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

On the opening angle of magnetised jets from neutron-star mergers: the case of GRB170817A

The observations of GW170817/GRB170817A have confirmed that the coalescence of a neutron-star binary is the progenitor of a short gamma-ray burst. In the standard picture of a short gamma-ray burst, a collimated highly relativistic outflow is launched after merger and it successfully breaks out from the surrounding ejected matter. Using initial conditions inspired from numerical-relativity binary neutron-star merger simulations, we have performed general-relativistic hydrodynamic (HD) and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations in which the jet is launched and propagates self-consistently. The complete set of simulations suggests that: (i) MHD jets have an intrinsic energy and velocity polar structure with a ``hollow core'' subtending an angle $θ_{\rm core}\approx4^{\circ}-5^{\circ}$ and an opening angle of $θ_{\rm jet}\gtrsim10^{\circ}$; (ii) MHD jets eject significant amounts of matter and two orders of magnitude more than HD jets; (iii) the energy stratification in MHD jets naturally yields the power-law energy scaling $E(>Γβ)\propto(Γβ)^{-4.5}$; (iv) MHD jets provide fits to the afterglow data from GRB170817A that are comparatively better than those of the HD jets and without free parameters; (v) finally, both of the best-fit HD/MHD models suggest an observation angle $θ_{\rm obs} \simeq 21^{\circ}$ for GRB170817A.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Plasmoid formation in global GRMHD simulations and AGN flares

One of the main dissipation processes acting on all scales in relativistic jets is thought to be governed by magnetic reconnection. Such dissipation processes have been studied in idealized environments, such as reconnection layers, which evolve in merging islands and lead to the production of plasmoids, ultimately resulting in efficient particle acceleration. In accretion flows onto black holes, reconnection layers can be developed and destroyed rapidly during the turbulent evolution of the flow. We present a series of two-dimensional general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of tori accreting onto rotating black holes focusing our attention on the formation and evolution of current sheets. Initially, the tori are endowed with a poloidal magnetic field having a multi-loop structure along the radial direction and with an alternating polarity. During reconnection processes, plasmoids and plasmoid chains are developed leading to a flaring activity and hence to a variable electromagnetic luminosity. We describe the methods developed to track automatically the plasmoids that are generated and ejected during the simulation, contrasting the behaviour of multi-loop initial data with that encountered in typical simulations of accreting black holes having initial dipolar field composed of one loop only. Finally, we discuss the implications that our results have on the variability to be expected in accreting supermassive black holes.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Studying Black Holes on Horizon Scales with VLBI Ground Arrays

High-resolution imaging of supermassive black holes is now possible, with new applications to testing general relativity and horizon-scale accretion and relativistic jet formation processes. Over the coming decade, the EHT will propose to add new strategically placed VLBI elements operating at 1.3mm and 0.87mm wavelength. In parallel, development of next-generation backend instrumentation, coupled with high throughput correlation architectures, will boost sensitivity, allowing the new stations to be of modest collecting area while still improving imaging fidelity and angular resolution. The goal of these efforts is to move from imaging static horizon scale structure to dynamic reconstructions that capture the processes of accretion and jet launching in near real time.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2019

On the Deconfinement Phase Transition in Neutron-Star Mergers

We study in detail the nuclear aspects of a neutron-star merger in which deconfinement to quark matter takes place. For this purpose, we make use of the Chiral Mean Field (CMF) model, an effective relativistic model that includes self-consistent chiral symmetry restoration and deconfinement to quark matter and, for this reason, predicts the existence of different degrees of freedom depending on the local density/chemical potential and temperature. We then use the out-of-chemical-equilibrium finite-temperature CMF equation of state in full general-relativistic simulations to analyze which regions of different QCD phase diagrams are probed and which conditions, such as strangeness and entropy, are generated when a strong first-order phase transition appears. We also investigate the amount of electrons present in different stages of the merger and discuss how far from chemical equilibrium they can be and, finally, draw some comparisons with matter created in supernova explosions and heavy-ion collisions.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results and the Role of ALMA

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration revealed the first image of the candidate super-massive black hole (SMBH) at the centre of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87). This event-horizon-scale image shows a ring of glowing plasma with a dark patch at the centre, which is interpreted as the shadow of the black hole. This breakthrough result, which represents a powerful confirmation of Einstein's theory of gravity, or general relativity, was made possible by assembling a global network of radio telescopes operating at millimetre wavelengths that for the first time included the Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA). The addition of ALMA as an anchor station has enabled a giant leap forward by increasing the sensitivity limits of the EHT by an order of magnitude, effectively turning it into an imaging array. The published image demonstrates that it is now possible to directly study the event horizon shadows of SMBHs via electromagnetic radiation, thereby transforming this elusive frontier from a mathematical concept into an astrophysical reality. The expansion of the array over the next few years will include new stations on different continents - and eventually satellites in space. This will provide progressively sharper and higher-fidelity images of SMBH candidates, and potentially even movies of the hot plasma orbiting around SMBHs. These improvements will shed light on the processes of black hole accretion and jet formation on event-horizon scales, thereby enabling more precise tests of general relativity in the truly strong field regime.

astro-ph.HE↗