arXiv subjects

Luciano Rezzolla

Publications and source records attributed to Luciano Rezzolla.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Binary neutron-star mergers: a review of Einstein's richest laboratory

The merger of binary neutron-stars systems combines in a single process: extreme gravity, copious emission of gravitational waves, complex microphysics, and electromagnetic processes that can lead to astrophysical signatures observable at the largest redshifts. We review here the recent progress in understanding what could be considered Einstein's richest laboratory, highlighting in particular the numerous significant advances of the last decade. Although special attention is paid to the status of models, techniques, and results for fully general-relativistic dynamical simulations, a review is also offered on initial data and advanced simulations with approximate treatments of gravity. Finally, we review the considerable amount of work carried out on the post-merger phase, including: black-hole formation, torus accretion onto the merged compact object, connection with gamma-ray burst engines, ejected material, and its nucleosynthesis.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Gravitational collapse to a Kerr-Newman black hole

We present the first systematic study of the gravitational collapse of rotating and magnetised neutron stars to charged and rotating (Kerr-Newman) black holes. In particular, we consider the collapse of magnetised and rotating neutron stars assuming that no pair-creation takes place and that the charge density in the magnetosphere is so low that the stellar exterior can be described as an electrovacuum. Under these assumptions, which are rather reasonable for a pulsar that has crossed the 'death line', we show that when the star is rotating, it acquires a net initial electrical charge, which is then trapped inside the apparent horizon of the newly formed back hole. We analyse a number of different quantities to validate that the black hole produced is indeed a Kerr-Newman one and show that, in the absence of rotation or magnetic field, the end result of the collapse is a Schwarzschild or Kerr black hole, respectively.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Simulations of recoiling black holes: adaptive mesh refinement and radiative transfer

(Abridged) We here continue our effort to model the behaviour of matter when orbiting or accreting onto a generic black hole by developing a new numerical code employing advanced techniques geared solve the equations of in general-relativistic hydrodynamics. The new code employs a number of high-resolution shock-capturing Riemann-solvers and reconstruction algorithms, exploiting the enhanced accuracy and the reduced computational cost of AMR techniques. In addition, the code makes use of sophisticated ray-tracing libraries that, coupled with general-relativistic radiation-transfer calculations, allow us to compute accurately the electromagnetic emissions from such accretion flows. We validate the new code by presenting an extensive series of stationary accretion flows either in spherical or axial symmetry and performed either in 2D or 3D. In addition, we consider the highly nonlinear scenario of a recoiling black hole produced in the merger of a supermassive black hole binary interacting with the surrounding circumbinary disc. In this way we can present, for the first time, ray-traced images of the shocked fluid and the light-curve resulting from consistent general-relativistic radiation-transport calculations from this process. The work presented here lays the ground for the development of a generic computational infrastructure employing AMR techniques to deal accurately and self-consistently with accretion flows onto compact objects. In addition to the accurate handling of the matter, we provide a self-consistent electromagnetic emission from these scenarios by solving the associated radiative-transfer problem. While magnetic fields are presently excluded from our analysis, the tools presented here can have a number of applications to study accretion flows onto black holes or neutron stars.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

A new method for shadow calculations: application to parameterised axisymmetric black holes

Collaborative international efforts under the name of the Event Horizon Telescope project, using sub- mm very long baseline interferometry, are soon expected to provide the first images of the shadow cast by the candidate supermassive black hole in our Galactic center, Sagittarius A*. Observations of this shadow would provide direct evidence of the existence of astrophysical black holes. Although it is expected that astrophysical black holes are described by the axisymmetric Kerr solution, there also exist many other black hole solutions, both in general relativity and in other theories of gravity, which cannot presently be ruled out. To this end, we present calculations of black hole shadow images from various metric theories of gravity as described by our recent work on a general parameterisation of axisymmetric black holes [R. Konoplya, L. Rezzolla and A. Zhidenko, Phys. Rev. D 93, 064015 (2016)]. An algorithm to perform general ray-tracing calculations for any metric theory of gravity is first outlined and then employed to demonstrate that even for extremal metric deformation parameters of various black hole spacetimes, this parameterisation is both robust and rapidly convergent to the correct solution.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Did GW150914 produce a rotating gravastar?

The interferometric LIGO detectors have recently measured the first direct gravitational-wave signal from what has been interpreted as the inspiral, merger and ringdown of a binary system of black holes. The signal-to-noise ratio of the measured signal is large enough to leave little doubt that it does refer to the inspiral of two massive and ultracompact objects, whose merger yields a rotating black hole. Yet, the quality of the data is such that some room is left for alternative interpretations that do not involve black holes, but other objects that, within classical general relativity, can be equally massive and compact, namely, gravastars. We here consider the hypothesis that the merging objects were indeed gravastars and explore whether the merged object could therefore be not a black hole but a rotating gravastar. After comparing the real and imaginary parts of the ringdown signal of GW150914 with the corresponding quantities for a variety of gravastars, and notwithstanding the very limited knowledge of the perturbative response of rotating gravastars, we conclude it is not possible to model the measured ringdown of GW150914 as due to a rotating gravastar.

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arXiv2016

The Properties of Short gamma-ray burst Jets Triggered by neutron star mergers

The most popular model for short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) involves the coalescence of binary neutron stars. Because the progenitor is actually hidden from view, we must consider under which circumstances such merging systems are capable of producing a successful sGRB. Soon after coalescence, winds are launched from the merger remnant. In this paper, we use realistic wind profiles derived from global merger simulations in order to investigate the interaction of sGRB jets with these winds using numerical simulations. We analyze the conditions for which these axisymmetric winds permit relativistic jets to breakout and produce a sGRB. We find that jets with luminosities comparable to those observed in sGRBs are only successful when their half-opening angles are below ~20°. This jet collimation mechanism leads to a simple physical interpretation of the luminosities and opening angles inferred for sGRBs. If wide, low luminosity jets are observed, they might be indicative of a different progenitor avenue such as the merger of a neutron star with a black hole. We also use the observed durations of sGRB to place constraints on the lifetime of the wind phase, which is determined by the time it takes the jet to breakout. In all cases we find that the derived limits argue against completely stable remnants for binary neutron star mergers that produce sGRBs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Extraction of Gravitational Waves in Numerical Relativity

A numerical-relativity calculation yields in general a solution of the Einstein equations including also a radiative part, which is in practice computed in a region of finite extent. Since gravitational radiation is properly defined only at null infinity and in an appropriate coordinate system, the accurate estimation of the emitted gravitational waves represents an old and non-trivial problem in numerical relativity. A number of methods have been developed over the years to "extract" the radiative part of the solution from a numerical simulation and these include: quadrupole formulas, gauge-invariant metric perturbations, Weyl scalars, and characteristic extraction. We review and discuss each method, in terms of both its theoretical background as well as its implementation. Finally, we provide a brief comparison of the various methods in terms of their inherent advantages and disadvantages.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

The final spin from binary black holes in quasi-circular orbits

We revisit the problem of predicting the spin magnitude and direction of the black hole resulting from the merger of two black holes with arbitrary masses and spins inspiralling in quasi-circular orbits. We do this by analyzing a catalog of 619 recent numerical-relativity simulations collected from the literature and spanning a large variety of initial conditions. By combining information from the post-Newtonian approximation, the extreme mass-ratio limit and perturbative calculations, we improve our previously proposed phenomenological formulae for the final remnant spin. In contrast with alternative suggestions in the literature, and in analogy with our previous expressions, the new formula is a simple algebraic function of the initial system parameters and is not restricted to binaries with spins aligned/anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum, but can be employed for fully generic binaries. The accuracy of the new expression is significantly improved, especially for almost extremal progenitor spins and for small mass ratios, yielding a root-mean-square error $σ\approx0.002$ for aligned/anti-aligned binaries and $σ\approx0.006$ for generic binaries. Our new formula is suitable for cosmological applications and can be employed robustly in the analysis of the gravitational waveforms from advanced interferometric detectors.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Gravitational-wave signal from binary neutron stars: a systematic analysis of the spectral properties

A number of works have shown that important information on the equation of state of matter at nuclear density can be extracted from the gravitational waves emitted by merging neutron-star binaries. We present a comprehensive analysis of the gravitational-wave signal emitted during the inspiral, merger and post-merger of 56 neutron-star binaries. This sample of binaries, arguably the largest studied to date with realistic equations of state, spans across six different nuclear-physics equations of state and ten masses, allowing us to sharpen a number of results recently obtained on the spectral properties of the gravitational-wave signal. Overall we find that: (i) for binaries with masses differing no more than $20\%$, the frequency at gravitational-wave amplitude's maximum is related quasi-universally with the tidal deformability of the two stars; (ii) the spectral properties vary during the post-merger phase, with a transient phase lasting a few millisecond after the merger and followed by a quasi-stationary phase; (iii) when distinguishing the spectral peaks between these two phases, a number of ambiguities in the identification of the peaks disappear, leaving a simple and robust picture; (iv) using properly identified frequencies, quasi-universal relations are found between the spectral features and the properties of the neutron stars; (v) for the most salient peaks analytic fitting functions can be obtained in terms of the stellar tidal deformability or compactness. Altogether, these results support the idea that the equation of state of nuclear matter can be constrained tightly when a signal in gravitational waves from binary neutron stars is detected.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Initial-data contribution to the error budget of gravitational waves from neutron-star binaries

As numerical calculations of inspiralling neutron-star binaries reach values of accuracy that are comparable with those of binary black holes, a fine budgeting of the various sources of error becomes increasingly important. Among such sources, the initial data is normally not accounted for, the rationale being that the error on the initial spacelike hypersurface is always far smaller than the one gained during the evolution. We here consider critically this assumption and perform a comparative analysis of the gravitational waveforms relative to essentially the same physical binary configuration when computed with two different initial-data codes, and then evolved with the same evolution code. More specifically, we consider the evolution of irrotational neutron-star binaries computed either with the pseudo-spectral code \lorene{}, or with the newly developed finite-difference code \cocal{}; both sets of initial data are subsequently evolved with the high-order evolution code \whiskythc{}. In this way we find that despite the initial data shows global (local) differences that are $\lesssim 0.02\%\ (1\%)$, the gravitational-wave phase at the merger time differs by $\sim 0.5$ radians after $\sim 3$ orbits, a surprisingly large value. Our results highlight the highly nonlinear impact that errors in the initial data can have on the subsequent evolution and the importance of using exactly the same initial data when comparative studies are done.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Dynamical Mass Ejection from Binary Neutron Star Mergers

We present fully general-relativistic simulations of binary neutron star mergers with a temperature and composition dependent nuclear equation of state. We study the dynamical mass ejection from both quasi-circular and dynamical-capture eccentric mergers. We systematically vary the level of our treatment of the microphysics to isolate the effects of neutrino cooling and heating and we compute the nucleosynthetic yields of the ejecta. We find that eccentric binaries can eject significantly more material than quasi-circular binaries and generate bright infrared and radio emission. In all our simulations the outflow is composed of a combination of tidally- and shock-driven ejecta, mostly distributed over a broad $\sim 60^\circ$ angle from the orbital plane, and, to a lesser extent, by thermally driven winds at high latitudes. Ejecta from eccentric mergers are typically more neutron rich than those of quasi-circular mergers. We find neutrino cooling and heating to affect, quantitatively and qualitatively, composition, morphology, and total mass of the outflows. This is also reflected in the infrared and radio signatures of the binary. The final nucleosynthetic yields of the ejecta are robust and insensitive to input physics or merger type in the regions of the second and third r-process peaks. The yields for elements on the first peak vary between our simulations, but none of our models is able to explain the Solar abundances of first-peak elements without invoking additional first-peak contributions from either neutrino and viscously-driven winds operating on longer timescales after the mergers, or from core-collapse supernovae.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Electromagnetic fields in the exterior of an oscillating relativistic star -- II. Electromagnetic damping

An important issue in the asteroseismology of compact and magnetized stars is the determination of the dissipation mechanism which is most efficient in damping the oscillations when these are produced. In a linear regime and for low-multipolarity modes these mechanisms are confined to either gravitational-wave or electromagnetic losses. We here consider the latter and compute the energy losses in the form of Poynting fluxes, Joule heating and Ohmic dissipation in a relativistic oscillating spherical star with a dipolar magnetic field in vacuum. While this approach is not particularly realistic for rapidly rotating stars, it has the advantage that it is fully analytic and that it provides expressions for the electric and magnetic fields produced by the most common modes of oscillation both in the vicinity of the star and far away from it. In this way we revisit and extend to a relativistic context the classical estimates of McDermott et al. Overall, we find that general-relativistic corrections lead to electromagnetic damping time-scales that are at least one order of magnitude smaller than in Newtonian gravity. Furthermore, with the only exception of $g$ (gravity) modes, we find that $f$ (fundamental), $p$ (pressure), $i$ (interface) and $s$ (shear) modes are suppressed more efficiently by gravitational losses than by electromagnetic ones.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

Bjorken flow in one-dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamics with magnetization

We study the one-dimensional, longitudinally boost-invariant motion of an ideal fluid with infinite conductivity in the presence of a transverse magnetic field, i.e., in the ideal transverse magnetohydrodynamical limit. In an extension of our previous work Roy et al., [Phys. Lett. B 750, 45 (2015)], we consider the fluid to have a non-zero magnetization. First, we assume a constant magnetic susceptibility $χ_{m}$ and consider an ultrarelativistic ideal gas equation of state. For a paramagnetic fluid (i.e., with $χ_{m}>0$), the decay of the energy density slows down since the fluid gains energy from the magnetic field. For a diamagnetic fluid (i.e., with $χ_{m}<0$), the energy density decays faster because it feeds energy into the magnetic field. Furthermore, when the magnetic field is taken to be external and to decay in proper time $τ$ with a power law $\simτ^{-a}$, two distinct solutions can be found depending on the values of $a$ and $χ_m$. Finally, we also solve the ideal magnetohydrodynamical equations for one-dimensional Bjorken flow with a temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility and a realistic equation of state given by lattice-QCD data. We find that the temperature and energy density decay more slowly because of the non-vanishing magnetization. For values of the magnetic field typical for heavy-ion collisions, this effect is, however, rather small. Only for magnetic fields which are about an order of magnitude larger than expected for heavy-ion collisions, the system is substantially reheated and the lifetime of the quark phase might be extended.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2016

Maximum mass, moment of inertia and compactness of relativistic stars

A number of recent works have highlighted that it is possible to express the properties of general-relativistic stellar equilibrium configurations in terms of functions that do not depend on the specific equation of state employed to describe matter at nuclear densities. These functions are normally referred to as "universal relations" and have been found to apply, within limits, both to static or stationary isolated stars, as well as to fully dynamical and merging binary systems. Further extending the idea that universal relations can be valid also away from stability, we show that a universal relation is exhibited also by equilibrium solutions that are not stable. In particular, the mass of rotating configurations on the turning-point line shows a universal behaviour when expressed in terms of the normalised Keplerian angular momentum. In turn, this allows us to compute the maximum mass allowed by uniform rotation, M_{max}, simply in terms of the maximum mass of the nonrotating configuration, M_{TOV}, finding that M_{max} ~ (1.203 +- 0.022) M_{TOV} for all the equations of state we have considered. We further show that a universal relation can be found between the dimensionless moment of inertia and the stellar compactness. Although this relation is not surprising as it involves two quantities that have been shown to exhibit universal behaviour with other stellar properties, our parameterisation represents a refinement over a similar relation by Lattimer and Schutz (2005), where a different normalisation was used, and could provide an accurate tool to constrain the equation of state of nuclear matter when measurements of the moment of inertia become available.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2016

General parametrization of axisymmetric black holes in metric theories of gravity

Following previous work of ours in spherical symmetry, we here propose a new parametric framework to describe the spacetime of axisymmetric black holes in generic metric theories of gravity. In this case, the metric components are functions of both the radial and the polar angular coordinates, forcing a double expansion to obtain a generic axisymmetric metric expression. In particular, we use a continued-fraction expansion in terms of a compactified radial coordinate to express the radial dependence, while we exploit a Taylor expansion in terms of the cosine of the polar angle for the polar dependence. These choices lead to a superior convergence in the radial direction and to an exact limit on the equatorial plane. As a validation of our approach, we build parametrized representations of Kerr, rotating dilaton, and Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet black holes. The match is already very good at lowest order in the expansion and improves as new orders are added. We expect a similar behavior for any stationary and axisymmetric black-hole metric.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2015

Analytic Bjorken flow in one-dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamics

In the initial stage of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, strong magnetic fields appear due to the large velocity of the colliding charges. The evolution of these fields appears as a novel and intriguing feature in the fluid-dynamical description of heavy-ion collisions. In this work, we study analytically the one-dimensional, longitudinally boost-invariant motion of an ideal fluid in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Interestingly, we find that, in the limit of ideal magnetohydrodynamics, i.e., for infinite conductivity, and irrespective of the strength of the initial magnetization, the decay of the fluid energy density $e$ with proper time $τ$ is the same as for the time-honored "Bjorken flow" without magnetic field. Furthermore, when the magnetic field is assumed to decay $\sim τ^{-a}$, where $a$ is an arbitrary number, two classes of analytic solutions can be found depending on whether $a$ is larger or smaller than one. In summary, the analytic solutions presented here highlight that the Bjorken flow is far more general than formerly thought. These solutions can serve both to gain insight on the dynamics of heavy-ion collisions in the presence of strong magnetic fields and as testbeds for numerical codes.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2015

Recollimation Shocks in Magnetized Relativistic Jets

We have performed two-dimensional special-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of non-equilibrium over-pressured relativistic jets in cylindrical geometry. Multiple stationary recollimation shock and rarefaction structures are produced along the jet by the nonlinear interaction of shocks and rarefaction waves excited at the interface between the jet and the surrounding ambient medium. Although initially the jet is kinematically dominated, we have considered axial, toroidal and helical magnetic fields to investigate the effects of different magnetic-field topologies and strengths on the recollimation structures. We find that an axial field introduces a larger effective gas-pressure and leads to stronger recollimation shocks and rarefactions, resulting in larger flow variations. The jet boost grows quadratically with the initial magnetic field. On the other hand, a toroidal field leads to weaker recollimation shocks and rarefactions, modifying significantly the jet structure after the first recollimation rarefaction and shock. The jet boost decreases systematically. For a helical field, instead, the behaviour depends on the magnetic pitch, with a phenomenology that ranges between the one seen for axial and toroidal magnetic fields, respectively. In general, however, a helical magnetic field yields a more complex shock and rarefaction substructure close to the inlet that significantly modifies the jet structure. The differences in shock structure resulting from different field configurations and strengths may have observable consequences for disturbances propagating through a stationary recollimation shock.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

New code for quasiequilibrium initial data of binary neutron stars: Corotating, irrotational and slowly spinning systems

We present the extension of our \cocal~- Compact Object CALculator - code to compute general-relativistic initial data for binary compact-star systems. In particular, we construct quasiequilibrium initial data for equal-mass binaries with spins that are either aligned or antialigned with the orbital angular momentum. The Isenberg-Wilson-Mathews formalism is adopted and the constraint equations are solved using the representation formula with a suitable choice of a Green's function. We validate the new code with solutions for equal-mass binaries and explore its capabilities for a wide range of compactnesses, from a white dwarf binary with compactness $\sim 10^{-4}$, up to a highly relativistic neutron-star binary with compactness $\sim 0.22$. We also present a comparison with corotating and irrotational quasiequilibrium sequences from the spectral code \lorene [Taniguchi and Gourgoulhon, Phys. Rev. D {\bf 66}, 104019 (2002)] and with different compactness, showing that the results from the two codes agree to a precision of the order of $0.05\%$. Finally, we present equilibria for spinning configurations with a nuclear-physics equation of state in a piecewise polytropic representation.

gr-qc↗