arXiv subjects

Michael Kavic

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Kavic.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2022

Stability and Observability of Magnetic Primordial Black Hole-Neutron Star Collisions

The collision of a primordial black hole with a neutron star results in the black hole eventually consuming the entire neutron star. However, if the black hole is magnetically charged, and therefore stable against decay by Hawking radiation, the consequences can be quite different. Upon colliding with a neutron star, a magnetic black hole very rapidly comes to a stop. For large enough magnetic charge, we show that this collision can be detected as a sudden change in the rotation period of the neutron star, a glitch or anti-glitch.We argue that the magnetic primordial black hole, which then settles to the core of the neutron star, does not necessarily devour the entire neutron star; the system can instead reach a long-lived, quasi-stable equilibrium. Because the black hole is microscopic compared to the neutron star, most stellar properties remain unchanged compared to before the collision. However, the neutron star will heat up and its surface magnetic field could potentially change, both effects potentially observable.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

First Principles Phenomenology of $H_0$

In this letter we discuss infinite statistics and motivate its role in quantum gravity. Then, we connect infinite statistics to a dynamical form of dark energy, and we obtain an expression for the evolution of the Hubble parameter that we compare to observation. The equation of state parameter $w_{eff} < -1$ in this framework.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Accessing the axion via compact object binaries

Black holes in binaries with other compact objects can provide natural venues for indirect detection of axions or other ultralight fields. The superradiant instability associated with a rapidly spinning black hole leads to the creation of an axion cloud which carries energy and angular momentum from the black hole. This cloud will then decay via gravitational wave emission. We show that the energy lost as a result of this process tends toward an outspiraling of the binary orbit. A given binary system is sensitive to a narrow range of axion masses, determined by the mass of the black hole. Pulsar-black hole binaries, once detected in the electromagnetic band, will allow high-precision measurements of black hole mass loss via timing measurements of the companion pulsar. This avenue of investigation is particularly promising in light of the recent preliminary announcements of two candidate black hole-neutron star mergers by LIGO/VIRGO (#S190814bv and #S190426c). We demonstrate that for such a binary system with a typical millisecond pulsar and a 3-solar-mass black hole, axions with masses between $2.7 \times 10^{-12}$ eV and $3.2 \times 10^{-12}$ eV are detectable. Recent gravitational wave observations by LIGO/VIRGO of binary black hole mergers imply that, for these binaries, gravitational radiation from the rotating quadrupole moment is a dominant effect, causing an inspiraling orbit. With some reasonable assumptions about the period of the binary when it formed and the spins of the black holes, these observations rule out possible axion masses between $3 \times 10^{-13}$ eV and $6 \times 10^{-13}$ eV. Future binary black hole observations, for example by LISA, are expected to provide more robust bounds. In some circumstances, neutron stars may also undergo superradiant instabilities, and binary pulsars could be used to exclude axions with certain masses and matter couplings.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Probing Near-Horizon Fluctuations with Black Hole Binary Mergers

The strong version of the nonviolent nonlocality proposal of Giddings predicts "strong but soft" quantum metric fluctuations near black hole horizons in an attempt to resolve the information paradox. To study observable signatures of this proposal, we numerically solve Einstein's equations modified by these fluctuations and analyze the gravitational wave signal from the inspiral and merger of two black holes. In a model of evolution for such fluctuations, we show that they lead to significant deviations in the observed waveform, even when the black holes are still well separated, and could potentially be observed by aLIGO.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2017

Shining Light on Quantum Gravity with Pulsar-Black Hole Binaries

Pulsars are some of the most accurate clocks found in nature, while black holes offer a unique arena for the study of quantum gravity. As such, pulsar-black hole (PSR-BH) binaries provide ideal astrophysical systems for detecting the effects of quantum gravity. With the success of aLIGO and the advent of instruments like the SKA and eLISA, the prospects for the discovery of such PSR-BH binaries are very promising. We argue that PSR-BH binaries can serve as ready-made testing grounds for proposed resolutions to the black hole information paradox. We propose using timing signals from a pulsar beam passing through the region near a black hole event horizon as a probe of quantum gravitational effects. In particular, we demonstrate that fluctuations of the geometry outside a black hole lead to an increase in the measured root mean square deviation of the arrival times of pulsar pulses traveling near the horizon. This allows for a clear observational test of the nonviolent nonlocality proposal for black hole information escape. For a series of pulses traversing the near-horizon region, this model predicts an rms in pulse arrival times of $\sim30\ μ$s for a $3 M_\odot$ black hole, $\sim0.3\, $ms for a $30 M_\odot$ black hole, and $\sim40\, $s for Sgr A*. The current precision of pulse time-of-arrival measurements is sufficient to discern these rms fluctuations. This work is intended to motivate observational searches for PSR-BH systems as a means of testing models of quantum gravity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2017

Analysis of Scattering from Archival Pulsar Data using a CLEAN-based Method

In this work we adopted a CLEAN-based method to determine the scatter time, $τ$, from archived pulsar profiles under both the thin screen and uniform medium scattering models and to calculate the scatter time frequency scale index $α$ where $τ\proptoν^α$. The value of $α$ is $-4.4$, if a Kolmogorov spectrum of the interstellar medium turbulence is assumed. We deconvolved 1342 profiles from 347 pulsars over a broad range of frequencies and dispersion measures. In our survey, in the majority of cases the scattering effect was not significant compared to pulse profile widths. For a subset of 21 pulsars scattering at the lowest frequencies was large enough to be measured. Because reliable scatter time measurements were determined only for the lowest frequency, we were limited to using upper limits on scatter times at higher frequencies for the purpose of our scatter time frequency slope estimation. We scaled the deconvolved scatter time to 1~GHz assuming $α=-4.4$ and considered our results in the context of other observations which yielded a broad relation between scatter time and dispersion measure.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Simultaneous Observations of Giant Pulses from Pulsar PSR B0950+08 at 42 MHz and 74 MHz

We report the detection of giant pulse emission from PSR~B0950+08 in 12 hours of observations made simultaneously at 42~MHz and 74~MHz, using the first station of the Long Wavelength Array, LWA1. We detected 275 giant pulses (in 0.16\% of the pulse periods) and 465 giant pulses (0.27\%) at 42 and 74~MHz, respectively. The pulsar is weaker and produces less frequent giant pulses than at 100~MHz. Here, giant pulses are taken as having $\geq$ 10 times the flux density of an average pulse; their cumulative distribution of pulse strength follows a power law, with a index of $-$4.1 at 42~MHz and $-$5.1 at 74~MHz, which is much less steep than would be expected if we were observing the tail of a Gaussian distribution of normal pulses. We detected no other transient pulses in a wide dispersion measure range from 1 to 5000~pc~cm$^{-3}$. There were 128 giant pulses detected within in the same periods from both 42 and 74~MHz, which means more than half of them are not generated in a wide band. We use CLEAN-based algorithm to analyze the temporal broadening and conclude that the scattering effect from the interstellar medium can not be observed. We calculated the altitude $r$ of the emission region using the dipolar magnetic field model. We found $r$(42~MHz) = 29.27~km ($0.242\%$ of $R_{LC}$) and $r$(74~MHz) = 29.01~km ($0.240\%$ of $R_{LC}$) for the average pulse, while for giant pulses, $r$(42~MHz) = 29.10~km ($0.241\%$ of $R_{LC}$) and $r$(74~MHz) = 28.95~km ($0.240\%$ of $R_{LC}$). Giant pulses, which have a double-peak structure, have a smaller mean peak-to-peak separation compared to the average pulse.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2016

Simultaneous Observations of Giant Pulses from Pulsar PSR B0031-07 at 38 MHz and 74 MHz

The first station of the Long Wavelength Array (LWA1) was used to study PSR~B0031-07 with simultaneous observations at 38 and 74~MHz. We found that 158 (0.35\%) of the observed pulses at 38~MHz and 221 (0.49\%) of the observed pulses at 74~MHz qualified as giant pulses in a total of 12 hours of observations. Giant pulses are defined as having flux densities of a factor of $\geq$ 90 times that of an average pulse at 38~MHz and $\geq$ 80 times that of an average pulse at 74~MHz. The cumulative distribution of pulse strength follows a power law, with an index of $-$4.2 at 38~MHz and $-$4.9 at 74~MHz. This distribution has a much more gradual slope than would be expected if observing the tail of a Gaussian distribution of normal pulses. The dispersion measure value which resulted in the largest signal-to-noise for dedispersed pulses was DM $=10.9$~pc~cm$^{-3}$. No other transient pulses were detected in the data in the wide dispersion measure range from 1 to 5000~pc~cm$^{-3}$. There were 12 giant pulses detected within the same period from both 38 and 74~MHz, meaning that the majority of them are not generated in a wide band.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Multi-messenger astronomy of gravitational-wave sources with flexible wide-area radio transient surveys

We explore opportunities for multi-messenger astronomy using gravitational waves (GWs) and prompt, transient low-frequency radio emission to study highly energetic astrophysical events. We review the literature on possible sources of correlated emission of gravitational waves and radio transients, highlighting proposed mechanisms that lead to a short-duration, high-flux radio pulse originating from the merger of two neutron stars or from a superconducting cosmic string cusp. We discuss the detection prospects for each of these mechanisms by low-frequency dipole array instruments such as LWA1, LOFAR and MWA. We find that a broad range of models may be tested by searching for radio pulses that, when de-dispersed, are temporally and spatially coincident with a LIGO/Virgo GW trigger within a $\usim 30$ second time window and $\usim 200 \mendash 500 \punits{deg}^{2}$ sky region. We consider various possible observing strategies and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Uniquely, for low-frequency radio arrays, dispersion can delay the radio pulse until after low-latency GW data analysis has identified and reported an event candidate, enabling a \emph{prompt} radio signal to be captured by a deliberately targeted beam. If neutron star mergers do have detectable prompt radio emissions, a coincident search with the GW detector network and low-frequency radio arrays could increase the LIGO/Virgo effective search volume by up to a factor of $\usim 2$. For some models, we also map the parameter space that may be constrained by non-detections.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2015

Observations of Giant Pulses from Pulsar PSR B0950+08 using LWA1

We report the detection of giant pulse emission from PSR B0950+08 in 24 hours of observations made at 39.4 MHz, with a bandwidth of 16 MHz, using the first station of the Long Wavelength Array, LWA1. We detected 119 giant pulses from PSR B0950+08 (at its dispersion measure), which we define as having SNRs at least 10 times larger than for the mean pulse in our data set. These 119 pulses are 0.035% of the total number of pulse periods in the 24 hours of observations. The rate of giant pulses is about 5.0 per hour. The cumulative distribution of pulse strength $S$ is a steep power law, $N(>S)\propto S^{-4.7}$, but much less steep than would be expected if we were observing the tail of a Gaussian distribution of normal pulses. We detected no other transient pulses in a dispersion measure range from 1 to 90 pc cm$^{-3}$, in the beam tracking PSR B0950+08. The giant pulses have a narrower temporal width than the mean pulse (17.8 ms, on average, vs. 30.5 ms). The pulse widths are consistent with a previously observed weak dependence on observing frequency, which may be indicative of a deviation from a Kolmogorov spectrum of electron density irregularities along the line of sight. The rate and strength of these giant pulses is less than has been observed at $\sim$100 MHz. Additionally, the mean (normal) pulse flux density we observed is less than at $\sim$100 MHz. These results suggest this pulsar is weaker and produces less frequent giant pulses at 39 MHz than at 100 MHz.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

A Precision Test for an Extra Spatial Dimension Using Black Hole--Pulsar Binaries

We discuss the observable effects of enhanced black-hole mass loss in a black hole--neutron star (BH--NS) binary, due to the presence of a warped extra spatial dimension of curvature radius $L$ in the braneworld scenario. For some masses and orbital parameters in the expected ranges the binary components would outspiral, the opposite of the behavior due to energy loss from gravitational radiation alone. If the NS is a pulsar, observations of the rate of change of the orbital period with a precision obtained for the Binary Pulsar B1913+16 could easily detect the effect of mass loss. For $M_{BH}=7M_\odot$, $M_{NS}=1.4M_\odot$, eccentricity $e=0.1$, and $L=10μ$m, the critical orbital period dividing systems which inspiral from systems which outspiral is P$\approx$6.5 hours, which is within the range of expected orbital periods; this value drops to P$\approx$4.2 hours for $M_{BH}=5M_\odot$. Observations of a BH--pulsar system could set considerably better limits on $L$ in these braneworld models than could be determined by torsion-balance gravity experiments in the foreseeable future.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2012

Modeling Time's Arrow

Quantum gravity, the initial low entropy state of the Universe, and the problem of time are interlocking puzzles. In this article, we address the origin of the arrow of time from a cosmological perspective motivated by a novel approach to quantum gravitation. Our proposal is based on a quantum counterpart of the equivalence principle, a general covariance of the dynamical phase space. We discuss how the nonlinear dynamics of such a system provides a natural description for cosmological evolution in the early Universe. We also underscore connections between the proposed non-perturbative quantum gravity model and fundamental questions in non-equilibrium statistical physics.

hep-th↗

arXiv2011

Probing the Climatological Impact of a Cosmic Ray-Cloud Connection through Low-Frequency Radio Observations

It has been proposed that cosmic ray events could have a causal relationship with cloud formation rates. Given the weak constraints on the role that cloud formation plays in climate forcing it is essential to understand the role such a relationship could have in shaping the Earth's climate. This issue has been previously investigated in the context of the long-term effect of cosmic ray events on climate. However, in order to establish whether or not such a relationship exists, measurements of short-timescale solar events, individual cosmic ray events, and spatially correlated cloud parameters could be of great significance. Here we propose such a comparison using observations from a pair of radio telescopes arrays, the Long Wavelength Array (LWA) and the Eight-meter-wavelength Transient Array (ETA). These low-frequency radio arrays have a unique ability to simultaneously conduct solar, ionospheric and cosmic rays observations and are thus ideal for such a comparison. We will outline plans for a comparison using data from these instruments, satellite images of cloud formation as well as expected cloud formation rates from numerical models. We present some preliminary results illustrating the efficacy of this type of comparison and discuss future plans to carryout this program.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2009

The Big Bang as the Ultimate Traffic Jam

We present a novel solution to the nature and formation of the initial state of the Universe. It derives from the physics of a generally covariant extension of Matrix theory. We focus on the dynamical state space of this background independent quantum theory of gravity and matter, an infinite dimensional, complex non-linear Grassmannian. When this space is endowed with a Fubini--Study-like metric, the associated geodesic distance between any two of its points is zero. This striking mathematical result translates into a physical description of a hot, zero entropy Big Bang. The latter is then seen as a far from equilibrium, large fluctuation driven, metastable ordered transition, a ``freezing by heating'' jamming transition. Moreover, the subsequent unjamming transition could provide a mechanism for inflation while rejamming may model a Big Crunch, the final state of gravitational collapse.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

Transient Pulses from Exploding Primordial Black Holes as a Signature of an Extra Dimension

An evaporating black hole in the presence of an extra spatial dimension would undergo an explosive phase of evaporation. We show that such an event, involving a primordial black hole, can produce a detectable, distinguishable electromagnetic pulse, signaling the existence of an extra dimension of size $L\sim10^{-18}-10^{-20}$ m. We derive a generic relationship between the Lorentz factor of a pulse-producing "fireball" and the TeV energy scale. For an ordinary toroidally compactified extra dimension, transient radio-pulse searches probe the electroweak energy scale ($\sim$0.1 TeV), enabling comparison with the Large Hadron Collider.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Searching for Transient Pulses with the ETA Radio Telescope

Array-based, direct-sampling radio telescopes have computational and communication requirements unsuited to conventional computer and cluster architectures. Synchronization must be strictly maintained across a large number of parallel data streams, from A/D conversion, through operations such as beamforming, to dataset recording. FPGAs supporting multi-gigabit serial I/O are ideally suited to this application. We describe a recently-constructed radio telescope called ETA having all-sky observing capability for detecting low frequency pulses from transient events such as gamma ray bursts and primordial black hole explosions. Signals from 24 dipole antennas are processed by a tiered arrangement of 28 commercial FPGA boards and 4 PCs with FPGA-based data acquisition cards, connected with custom I/O adapter boards supporting InfiniBand and LVDS physical links. ETA is designed for unattended operation, allowing configuration and recording to be controlled remotely.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Transient Astrophysical Pulses and Quantum Gravity

Searches for transient astrophysical pulses could open an exciting new window into the fundamental physics of quantum gravity. In particular, an evaporating primordial black hole in the presence of an extra dimension can produce a detectable transient pulse. Observations of such a phenomenon can in principle explore the electroweak energy scale, indicating that astrophysical probes of quantum gravity can successfully complement the exciting new physics expected to be discovered in the near future at the Large Hadron Collider.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

On the Origin of Time and the Universe

We present a novel solution to the low entropy and arrow of time puzzles of the initial state of the Universe. Our approach derives from the physics of a specific generalization of Matrix theory put forth in earlier work as the basis for a quantum theory of gravity. The particular dynamical state space of this theory, the infinite dimensional analogue of the Fubini-Study metric over a complex non-linear Grassmannian, has recently been studied by Michor and Mumford. The geodesic distance between any two points on this space is zero. Here we show that this mathematical result translates to a description of a hot, zero entropy state and an arrow of time after the Big Bang. This is modeled as a far from equilibrium, large fluctuation driven, "freezing by heating" metastable ordered phase transition of a non-linear dissipative dynamical system.

hep-th↗