arXiv subjects

Niayesh Afshordi

Publications and source records attributed to Niayesh Afshordi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

A glitch in gravity: cosmic Lorentz-violation from fiery Big Bang to glacial heat death

One regime where we might see departures from general relativity is at the largest accessible scales, with a natural choice in cosmology being the cosmological horizon (or Hubble) scale. We investigate a single-parameter extension to the standard cosmological model with a different strength of gravity above and below this scale -- a "cosmic glitch" in gravity. Cosmic microwave background observations, and Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations (including the recent DESI Y1) favour weaker superhorizon gravity, at nearly a percent (or 2$σ$ level), easing both the Hubble and clustering tensions with other cosmological data. This compounds evidence for an even stronger glitch during Big Bang nucleosynthesis (from helium abundance observations), suggesting that symmetries of general relativity are maximally violated at the Big Bang, but gradually recovered as we approach the present-day cosmological de Sitter scale, associated with the observed dark energy.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

Black Holes Inside and Out 2024: visions for the future of black hole physics

The gravitational physics landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by our ability to study strong-field regions, in particular black holes. Black Holes Inside and Out gathered world experts to discuss the status of the field and prospects ahead. We hope that the ideas and perspectives are a source of inspiration. Structure: Black Hole Evaporation - 50 Years by William Unruh The Stability Problem for Extremal Black Holes by Mihalis Dafermos The Entropy of Black Holes by Robert M. Wald The Non-linear Regime of Gravity by Luis Lehner Black Holes Galore in D > 4 by Roberto Emparan Same as Ever: Looking for (In)variants in the Black Holes Landscape by Carlos A. R. Herdeiro Black Holes, Cauchy Horizons, and Mass Inflation by Matt Visser The Backreaction Problem for Black Holes in Semiclassical Gravity by Adrian del Rio Black Holes Beyond General Relativity by Enrico Barausse and Jutta Kunz Black Holes as Laboratories: Searching for Ultralight Fields by Richard Brito Primordial Black Holes from Inflation by Misao Sasaki Tests of General Relativity with Future Detectors by Emanuele Berti Black Holes as Laboratories: Tests of General Relativity by Ruth Gregory and Samaya Nissanke Simulating Black Hole Imposters by Frans Pretorius Black Hole Spectroscopy: Status Report by Gregorio Carullo VLBI as a Precision Strong Gravity Instrument by Paul Tiede Testing the nature of compact objects and the black hole paradigm by Mariafelicia De Laurentis and Paolo Pani Some Thoughts about Black Holes in Asymptotic Safety by Alessia Platania Black Hole Evaporation in Loop Quantum Gravity by Abhay Ashtekar How the Black Hole Puzzles are Resolved in String Theory by Samir D. Mathur Quantum Black Holes: From Regularization to Information Paradoxes by Niayesh Afshordi and Stefano Liberati

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Simulating Self-Lensing and Eclipsing Signals due to Detached Compact Objects in the TESS Light Curves

A fraction of Galactic stars have compact companions which could be white dwarfs (WDs), neutron stars (NSs) or stellar-mass black holes (SBHs). In a detached and edge-on binary system including a main-sequence star and a compact object (denoted by WDMS, NSMS, and BHMS systems), the stellar brightness can change periodically due to self-lensing or eclipsing features. The shape of a self-lensing signals is a degenerate function of stellar radius and compact object's mass because the self-lensing peak strongly depends on the projected source radius normalized to Einstein radius. Increasing the inclination angle $i$ changes the self-lensing shape from a strict top-hat model to one with slow-increasing edges. We simulate stellar light curves due to these binary systems which are observed by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) telescope and evaluate the efficiencies to detect their periodic signatures using two sets of criteria (i)SNR$>3$ and $N_{\rm{tran}}>1$ (Low-Confidence, LC), and (ii) SNR$>5$ and $N_{\rm{tran}}>2$ (High-Confidence, HC). The HC efficiencies for detecting WDMS, NSMS, and BHMS systems with the inclination angle $i<20^{\circ}$ during different time spans are $5$-$7\%$, $4.5$-$6\%$, and $4$-$5\%$, respectively. Detecting lensing-induced features is possible in only $\lesssim3\%$ and $\lesssim33\%$ of detectable WDMS and NSMS events. The detection efficiencies for closer source stars with higher priorities are higher and drop to zero for $b\gtrsim R_{\star}$, where $b\simeq \tan(i) a$ is the impact parameter($a$ is the semi-major axis). We predict the numbers of WDs, NSs, and SBHs that are discovered from the TESS Candidate Target List stars are $15$-$18$, $6$-$7$, and $<1$.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

Accelerated detector in a superposed spacetime

In pursuit of a full-fledged theory of quantum gravity, operational approaches offer insights into quantum-gravitational effects produced by quantum superposition of different spacetimes not diffeomorphic to one another. Recent work applies this approach to superpose cylindrically identified Minkowski spacetimes (i.e. periodic boundary conditions) with different characteristic circumferences, where a two-level detector coupled to a quantum field residing in the spacetime exhibits resonance peaks in response at certain values of the superposed length ratios. Here, we extend this analysis to a superposition of cylindrically identified Rindler spacetimes, considering a two-level detector constantly accelerated in the direction orthogonal to the compact dimension. Similarly to previous work, we find resonance peaks in the detector response at rational ratios of the superposed compactified lengths, which we observe to be accentuated by the acceleration of the detector. Furthermore, for the first time we confirm the detailed balance condition due to acceleration in a superposition of spacetimes, commensurate with the Unruh effect in a single spacetime state. The resonant structure of detector response in the presence of event horizons, for the first time observed in 3+1 dimensions, may offer clues to the nature of black hole entropy in the full theory of quantum gravity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

Detecting cosmological scalar fields using orbital networks of quantum sensors

In this Letter, we propose to detect the interaction of a hypothetical coherently evolving cosmological scalar field with an orbital network of quantum sensors, focusing on the GPS satellite network as a test example. Cosmological scenarios, such as a scalar-tensor theory for dark energy or the axi-Higgs model, suggest that such a field may exist. As this field would be (approximately) at rest in the CMB frame, it would exhibit a dipole as a result of the movement of our terrestrial observers relative to the CMB. While the current sensitivity of the GPS network is insufficient to detect a cosmological dipole, future networks of quantum sensors on heliocentric orbits, using state-of-the-art atomic clocks, can reach and exceed this requirement.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

A cosmic glitch in gravity

We investigate a model that modifies general relativity on cosmological scales, specifically by having a `glitch' in the gravitational constant between the cosmological (super-horizon) and Newtonian (sub-horizon) regimes, as motivated e.g. in the Hořava-Lifshitz proposal or in the Einstein-aether framework. This gives a single-parameter extension to the standard $Λ$CDM model, which is equivalent to adding a dark energy component, but where the energy density of this component can have either sign. Fitting to data from the Planck satellite, we find that negative contributions are, in fact, preferred. Additionally, we find that roughly one percent weaker superhorizon gravity can somewhat ease the Hubble and clustering tensions in a range of cosmological observations, although at the expense of spoiling fits to the baryonic acoustic oscillation scale in galaxy surveys. Therefore, the extra parametric freedom offered by our model deserves further exploration, and we discuss how future observations may elucidate this potential cosmic glitch in gravity, through a four-fold reduction in statistical uncertainties.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2024

A molecular dynamics simulation of the abrupt changes in the thermodynamic properties of water after formation of nano-bubbles / nano-cavities induced by passage of charged particles

We present a multi-scale formalism that accounts for the formation of nano-scale bubbles/cavities owing to a burst of water molecules after the passage of high energy charged particles that leads to the formation of hot non-ionizing excitations or thermal spikes (TS). We demonstrate the coexistence of a rapidly growing condensed state of water and a hot spot that forms a stable state of diluted water at high temperatures and pressures, possibly at a supercritical phase. Depending on the temperature of TS, the thin shell of a highly dense state of water grows by three to five times the speed of sound in water, forming a thin layer of shock wave (SW) buffer, wrapping around the nano-scale cylindrical symmetric cavity. The stability of the cavity, as a result of the incompressibility of water at ambient conditions and the surface tension, allows the transition of supersonic SW to a subsonic contact discontinuity and dissipation to thermo-acoustic sound waves. We further study the mergers of nanobubbles that lead to fountain-like or jet-flow structures at the collision interface. We introduce a time delay in the nucleation of nano-bubbles, a novel mechanism, responsible for the growth and stability of much larger or even micro-bubbles, possibly relevant to FLASH ultra-high dose rate (UHDR). The current study is potentially significant at FLASH-UHDRs. Our analysis predicts the black-body radiation from the transient supercritical state of water localized in nano-cavities wrapping around the track of charged particles can be manifested in the (indirect) water luminescence spectrum.

physics.med-ph↗

arXiv2024

Spectrogram correlated stacking: A novel time-frequency domain analysis of the Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background

The astrophysical stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB) originates from numerous faint sub-threshold gravitational wave (GW) signals arising from the coalescing binary compact objects. This background is expected to be discovered from the current (or next-generation) network of GW detectors by cross-correlating the signal between multiple pairs of GW detectors. However, detecting this signal is challenging and the correlation is only detectable at low frequencies due to the arrival time delay between different detectors. In this work, we propose a novel technique, \texttt{Spectrogram Correlated Stacking} (or \texttt{SpeCs}), which goes beyond the usual cross-correlation (and to higher frequencies) by exploiting the higher-order statistics in the time-frequency domain which accounts for the \textit{chirping} nature of the individual events that comprise SGWB. We show that \texttt{SpeCs} improves the signal-to-noise for the detection of SGWB by a factor close to $8$, compared to standard optimal cross-correlation methods which are tuned to measure only the power spectrum of the SGWB signal.\texttt{SpeCs} can probe beyond the power spectrum and its application to the GW data available from the current and next-generation GW detectors would speed up the SGWB discovery.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Model-independent search for the quasinormal modes of gravitational wave echoes

Postmerger gravitational wave echoes provide a unique opportunity to probe the near-horizon structure of astrophysical black holes, which may be modified due to nonperturbative quantum gravity phenomena. However, since the waveform is subject to large theoretical uncertainties, it is necessary to develop search methods that are less reliant on specific models for detecting echoes from observational data. A promising strategy is to identify the characteristic quasinormal modes (QNMs) associated with echoes, {\it in frequency space}, which complements existing searches of quasiperiodic pulses in time. In this study, we build upon our previous work targeting these modes by incorporating relative phase information to optimize the Bayesian search algorithm. Using a new phase-marginalized likelihood, the performance can be significantly improved for well-resolved QNMs. This enables an efficient search for QNMs of various shapes, utilizing a simple search template that is independent of specific models. To demonstrate the robustness of the search algorithm, we construct four complementary benchmarks for the echo waveform that span a diverse range of different theoretical possibilities for the near-horizon structure. We then validate our Bayesian search algorithms by injecting the benchmark models into different realizations of Gaussian noise. Using two types of phase-marginalized likelihoods, we find that the search algorithm can efficiently detect the corresponding QNMs. Therefore, our search strategy provides a concrete Bayesian and model-independent approach to "quantum black hole seismology."

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Reflecting boundary conditions in numerical relativity as a model for black hole echoes

Recently, there has been much interest in black hole echoes, based on the idea that there may be some mechanism (e.g., from quantum gravity) that waves/fields falling into a black hole could partially reflect off of an interface before reaching the horizon. There does not seem to be a good understanding of how to properly model a reflecting surface in numerical relativity, as the vast majority of the literature avoids the implementation of artificial boundaries, or applies transmitting boundary conditions. Here, we present a framework for reflecting a scalar field in a fully dynamical spherically symmetric spacetime, and implement it numerically. We study the evolution of a wave packet in this situation and its numerical convergence, including when the location of a reflecting boundary is very close to the horizon of a black hole. This opens the door to model exotic near-horizon physics within full numerical relativity.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

GW190521: Search for Echoes due to Stimulated Hawking Radiation from Black Holes

Being arguably the most massive binary black hole merger event observed to date, GW190521 deserves special attention. The exceptionally loud ringdown of this merger makes it an ideal candidate to search for gravitational wave echoes, a proposed smoking gun for the quantum structure of black hole horizons. We perform an unprecedented multi-pronged search for echoes via two well-established and independent pipelines: a template-based search for stimulated emission of Hawking radiation, or Boltzmann echoes, and the model-agnostic coherent WaveBurst (cWB) search. Stimulated Hawking radiation from the merger is expected to lead to post-merger echoes at horizon mode frequency of $\sim50$ Hz (for quadrupolar gravitational radiation), repeating at intervals of $\sim1$ second, due to partial reflection off Planckian quantum structure of the horizon. A careful analysis using dynamic nested sampling yields a Bayesian evidence of $8^{+4}_{-2}$ (90\% confidence level) for this signal following GW190521, carrying an excess of $6^{+10}_{-5}\%$ in gravitational wave energy, relative to the main event (consistent with the predicted amplitude of Boltzmann echoes). The "look-elsewhere" effect is estimated by using General Relativity (plus Boltzmann echoes) injections in real data, around the event, giving a false (true) positive detection probability for higher Bayes factors of $1.5^{+1.2}_{-0.9}\%$ ($35\pm7\%$). Similarly, the reconstructed waveform of the first echo in cWB carries an energy excess of $13^{+16}_{-7}\%$. While the current evidence for stimulated Hawking radiation does not reach the gold standard of $5σ$ (or p-value $<3\times10^{-7}$), our findings are in line with expectations for stimulated Hawking radiation at current detector sensitivities. The next generation of gravitational wave observatories can thus draw a definitive conclusion on the quantum nature of black hole horizons.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

On the Outskirts of Dark Matter Haloes

Halo Models of large scale structure provide powerful and indispensable tools for phenomenological understanding of the clustering of matter in the Universe. While the halo model builds structures out of the superposition of haloes, defining halo profiles in their outskirts - beyond their virial radii - becomes increasingly ambiguous, as one cannot assign matter to individual haloes in a clear way. In this paper, we tackle this question by using numerical N-body simulations to find a systematic definition of mean halo profile that can be extended to large radii. These profiles must be compensated and are the key ingredients for the computation of cosmological correlation functions in the Amended Halo Model. The latter, introduced in our earlier work (arXiv:1912.04872), provides a more physically accurate phenomenological description of nonlinear structure formation, which respects conservation laws on large scales. Here, we extend this model from the matter auto-power spectrum to the halo-matter cross-power spectra, using N-body simulations. We find that the (dimensionless) compensated halo profile, $r^3 \times ρ(r)/M_{200c}$ has a near-universal maximum in the small range $0.03-0.04$ around the virial radius, $r \simeq r_{\rm 200c}$, independent of the halo mass. The profiles cross zero into negative values in the halo outskirts, beyond 2-3$\times r_{\rm 200c}$, consistent with our previous results. We provide preliminary fitting functions for compensated Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profiles, and this can be used to compute more physical observables in the Amended Halo Model of large scale structure.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Scale-invariance at the core of quantum black holes

We study spherically-symmetric solutions to a modified Einstein-Hilbert action with Renormalization Group scale-dependent couplings, inspired by Weinberg's Asymptotic Safety scenario for Quantum Gravity. The Renormalization Group scale is identified with the Tolman temperature for an isolated gravitational system in thermal equilibrium with Hawking radiation. As a result, the point of infinite local temperature is shifted from the classical black-hole horizon to the origin and coincides with a timelike curvature singularity. Close to the origin, the spacetime is determined by the scale-dependence of the cosmological constant in the vicinity of the Reuter fixed point: the free components of the metric can be derived analytically and are characterized by a radial power law with exponent $α= \sqrt{3}-1$. Away from the fixed point, solutions for different masses are studied numerically and smoothly interpolate between the Schwarzschild exterior and the scale-invariant interior. Whereas the exterior of objects with astrophysical mass is described well by vacuum General Relativity, deviations become significant at a Planck distance away from the classical horizon and could lead to observational signatures. We further highlight potential caveats in this intriguing result with regard to our choice of scale-identification and identify future avenues to better understand quantum black holes in relation to the key feature of scale-invariance.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

From Entropy to Echoes: Counting the quasi-normal modes and the quantum limit of silence

We estimate the canonical entropy of a quantum black hole by counting its quasi-normal modes. We first show that the partition function of a classical black hole, evaluated by counting the quasi-normal modes with a thermodyanmic Boltzmann weight, leads to a small entropy of order unity due to the small contribution from higher angular modes. We then discuss how this will be modified when taking into account dissipation effects near the horizon due to interaction with the quantum black hole microstates. The structure of quasi-normal modes drastically changes, yielding a fundamental frequency of the inverse of $t_{\rm echo} \sim$ log(Entropy)/Temperature. This is the time-scale for reflection from the microstates (or the quantum time limit of silence, followed by echoes), $\textit{independent of the strength of dissipation}$, and is comparable to the scrambling time proposed by Sekino & Susskind. Setting the dissipation constant to Planck time, we reproduce the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of $\sim$ (Horizon area)/(Planck area). This result suggests the possibility of simulating black hole entropy in analog horizons realized in condensed matter systems.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Lower bound on the cosmological constant from the classicality of the Early Universe

We use the quantum unimodular theory of gravity to relate the value of the cosmological constant, $Λ$, and the energy scale for the emergence of cosmological classicality. The fact that $Λ$ and unimodular time are complementary quantum variables implies a perennially quantum Universe should $Λ$ be zero (or, indeed, fixed at any value). Likewise, the smallness of $Λ$ puts an upper bound on its uncertainty, and so a lower bound on the unimodular clock's uncertainty or the cosmic time for the emergence of classicality. Far from being the Planck scale, classicality arises at around $7 \times 10^{11}$ GeV for the observed $Λ$, and taking the region of classicality to be our Hubble volume. We confirm this argument with a direct evaluation of the wavefunction of the Universe in the connection representation for unimodular theory. Our argument is robust, with the only leeway being in the comoving volume of our cosmological classical patch, which should be bigger than that of the observed last scattering surface. Should it be taken to be the whole of a closed Universe, then the constraint depends weakly on $Ω_k$: for $-Ω_k < 10^{-3}$ classicality is reached at $ > 4 \times 10^{12}$ GeV. If it is infinite, then this energy scale is infinite, and the Universe is always classical within the minisuperspace approximation. It is a remarkable coincidence that the only way to render the Universe classical just below the Planck scale is to define the size of the classical patch as the scale of non-linearity for a red spectrum with the observed spectral index $n_s = 0.967(4)$ (about $10^{11}$ times the size of the current Hubble volume). In the context of holographic cosmology, we may interpret this size as the scale of confinement in the dual 3D quantum field theory, which may be probed (directly or indirectly) with future cosmological surveys.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

A Universal Profile for Stacked Filaments from Cold Dark Matter Simulations

We study the stacked filaments connecting group-mass halo pairs, using dark-matter-only N-body simulations. We calculate the dark matter over-density profile of these stacked filaments at different redshifts as a function of the distance perpendicular to the filament axis. A four-parameter universal functional form, including three comoving scale radii and one amplitude parameter (core density), provides a good fit out to a radius of 20 cMpc/h for stacked filaments over a range of redshifts, lengths and masses. The scale radii are approximately independent of redshift but increase as power-laws with the comoving filament length. Lastly, we compare the scaling of the filament mass measured directly from the simulations to the predicted scaling from the halo-halo-matter three-point correlation function as a function of redshift and of the mass of the halo pairs. We find that both measured scalings are similar to, but somewhat shallower than the predictions, by 10% and 30%, respectively. These results provide a template to interpret present and upcoming observational results based on stacking, for example, weak lensing, thermal and kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich, or X-ray observations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2022

New Horizons for Fundamental Physics with LISA

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has the potential to reveal wonders about the fundamental theory of nature at play in the extreme gravity regime, where the gravitational interaction is both strong and dynamical. In this white paper, the Fundamental Physics Working Group of the LISA Consortium summarizes the current topics in fundamental physics where LISA observations of GWs can be expected to provide key input. We provide the briefest of reviews to then delineate avenues for future research directions and to discuss connections between this working group, other working groups and the consortium work package teams. These connections must be developed for LISA to live up to its science potential in these areas.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Spacing Statistics of Energy Spectra: Random Matrices, Black Hole Thermalization, and Echoes

Recent advances in AdS/CFT holography have suggested that the near-horizon dynamics of black holes can be described by random matrix systems. We study how the energy spectrum of a system with a generic random Hamiltonian matrix affects its early and late time thermalization behaviour using the spectral form factor (which captures the time-dependence of two-point correlation functions). We introduce a simple statistical framework for generating random spectra in terms of the nearest neighbor spacing statistics of energy eigenvalues, enabling us to compute the averaged spectral form factor in a closed form. This helps to easily illustrate how the spectral form factor changes with different choices of nearest neighbor statistics ranging from the Poisson to Wigner surmise statistics. We suggest that it is possible to have late time oscillations in random matrix models involving $β$-ensembles (generalizing classical Gaussian ensembles). We also study the form factor of randomly coupled oscillator systems and show that at weak coupling, such systems exhibit regular decaying oscillations in the spectral form factor making them interesting toy models for gravitational wave echoes. We speculate on the holographic interpretation of a system of coupled oscillators, and suggest that they describe the thermalization behaviour of a black hole geometry with a membrane that cuts off the geometry at the stretched horizon.

hep-th↗