arXiv subjects

Nicolas Yunes

Publications and source records attributed to Nicolas Yunes.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Hidden-Sector Modifications to Gravitational Waves From Binary Inspirals

Gravitational wave astronomy has placed strong constraints on fundamental physics, and there is every expectation that future observations will continue to do so. In this work we quantify this expectation for future binary merger observations to constrain hidden sectors, such as scalar-tensor gravity or dark matter, which induce a Yukawa-type modification to the gravitational potential. We explicitly compute the gravitational waveform, and perform a Fisher information matrix analysis to estimate the sensitivity of next generation gravitational wave detectors to these modifications. We find an optimal sensitivity to the Yukawa interaction strength of $10^{-5}$ and to the associated dipole emission parameter of $10^{-7}$, with the best constraints arising from the Einstein Telescope. When applied to a minimal model of dark matter, this provides an exquisite probe of dark matter accumulation by neutron stars, and for sub-TeV dark matter gravitational waves are able to detect mass fractions $m_{DM}/m_{NS}$ less then 1 part in $10^{15}$.

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arXiv2018

Binary White Dwarfs as Laboratories for Extreme Gravity with LISA

The observation of low-frequency gravitational waves with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna will allow the study of new sources of gravitational radiation that are not accessible by ground-based instruments. Gravitational wave sources provide invaluable information both about their astrophysics, as well as the nature of the gravitational interaction in their neighborhoods. One low frequency source that has not received much attention regarding the latter are galactic binaries composed of two white dwarves or a white dwarf and a neutron star. We here show that, contrary to the common lore, such gravitational wave sources can indeed be used to constrain an important feature of the gravitational interaction: the absence of pre-Newtonian, dipolar dissipation. We propose a model-independent framework to carry out a null test for the presence of this feature in the data that is very much analogous to tests of General Relativity with radio-observations of binary pulsars. We then go one step further and specialize this test to scalar-tensor theories to derive projected constraints on spontaneous scalarization. We find that these constraints can be comparable to current bounds with binary pulsars, and in some optimistic cases, they can be even stronger.

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arXiv2018

Weakly-Gravitating Objects in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity and Constraints with Gravity Probe B

Solar system observations have traditionally allowed for very stringent tests of Einstein's theory of general relativity. We here revisit the possibility of using these observations to constrain gravitational parity violation as encapsulated in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity. Working in the small-coupling and post-Newtonian approximations, we calculate analytically the scalar field and the gravitomagnetic sector of the gravitational field in the interior and the exterior of an isolated, weakly-gravitating object with uniform rotation and a quadrupolar mass deformation. We find that the asymptotic peeling-off behavior of the exterior fields is consistent with that found for black holes and neutron stars, as well as for non-relativistic objects, with overall coefficients that are different and dependent on the structure of the weak-field source. We then use these fields to explicitly calculate the dynamical Chern-Simons correction to the spin precession of gyroscopes in orbit around Earth, which we find to be in the same direction as the Lense-Thirring effect of General Relativity. We then compare this correction to the spin precession prediction of General Relativity to the results of the Gravity Probe B experiment to place a constraint on dynamical Chern-Simons theory that is consistent with previous approximate estimates. Although we focus primarily on a single body, our methods can be straightforwardly extended to binary systems or N-bodies.

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arXiv2018

Can we probe Planckian corrections at the horizon scale with gravitational waves?

Future detectors could be used as a gravitational microscope to probe the horizon structure of merging black holes with gravitational waves. But can this microscope probe the quantum regime? We study this interesting question and find that (i) the error in the distance resolution is exponentially sensitive to errors in the Love number, and (ii) the uncertainty principle of quantum gravity forces a fundamental resolution limit. Thus, although the gravitational microscope can distinguish between black holes and other exotic objects, it is resolution limited well above the Planckian scale.

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arXiv2018

Approximate Universal Relations among Tidal Parameters for Neutron Star Binaries

One of largest uncertainties in nuclear physics is the relation between the pressure and density of supranuclear matter: the equation of state. Some of this uncertainty may be removed through future gravitational wave observations of neutron star binaries by extracting the tidal deformabilities (or Love numbers) of neutron stars. Previous studies showed that only a certain combination of the individual deformabilities of each body (chirp tidal deformability) can be measured with second-generation gravitational wave interferometers, such as Adv. LIGO, due to correlations between the individual deformabilities. To overcome this, we search for approximately universal (or equation-of-state independent) relations between two combinations of the individual tidal deformabilities, such that once one of them has been measured, the other can be automatically obtained and the individual ones decoupled through these relations. We find an approximately universal relation between the symmetric and the anti-symmetric combination of the individual tidal deformabilities that is equation-of-state-insensitive to $20\%$ for binaries with masses less than $1.7M_\odot$. We show that these relations can be used to eliminate a combination of the tidal parameters from the list of model parameters, thus breaking degeneracies and improving the accuracy in parameter estimation. A simple study shows that the universal relations can improve the accuracy in the extraction of the symmetric combination of tidal parameters by as much as an order of magnitude, making the overall accuracy in the extraction of this parameter slightly better than that of the chirp tidal deformability. These new universal relations and the improved measurement accuracy on tidal parameters not only are important to astrophysics and nuclear physics, but also impact our ability to probe extreme gravity with gravitational waves and cosmology.

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arXiv2018

An Entropy-Area Law for Neutron Stars Near the Black Hole Threshold

Neutron stars exhibit a set of universal relations independent of their equation of state that bears semblance to the black hole no hair relations. Motivated by this, we analytically and numerically explore other relations that connect neutron star and black hole universality. By analyzing two different measures, we find that certain rescaled entropies possess a nearly universal behavior. We also discover that when the compactness of neutron stars approaches the black hole limit, the rescaled entropy approaches that of a black hole, and the thermodynamic entropy scales with the stellar surface area in an ever more universal way.

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arXiv2018

Spin-Precessing Black Hole Binaries in Dynamical Chern-Simons Gravity

Gravitational waves from spin-precessing binaries exhibit amplitude oscillations that provide an invaluable method to extract the spins of the inspiraling compact objects. The spin-spin and spin-orbit interactions that cause this effect are sensitive to the fundamental nature of gravity, which will allow us to constrain modified theories of gravity using gravitational wave observations of precessing binaries. We here consider precessing black hole binaries in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity, an effective theory of gravity that enhances parity violating interactions. We model the black holes as modified point particles using effective field theory, and derive the spin-precession equations for a binary system by working within the post-Newtonian formalism. We find that the spin-spin and quadrupole-monopole interactions of General Relativity are modified due to an interaction between the scalar dipoles of the two black holes and the modified black hole quadrupole as a result of the violation of the no hair theorems. These modifications enter the precession equations at leading post-Newtonian order. We further show that these precession equations admit seven constants of motion when neglecting radiation reaction, with only the mass-weighted effective spin being modified from General Relativity. We discuss how these may be used to reduce the precession equations to quadrature and the possibility of constructing analytic Fourier domain waveforms for generic spin-precessing binaries in dCS gravity.

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arXiv2018

Observing the Shadows of Stellar-Mass Black Holes with Binary Companions

The observation of the shadows cast by the event horizon of black holes on the light emitted in its neighborhood is the target of current very-long-baseline-interferometric observations. When considering supermassive black holes, the light source is the black hole's accretion disk, and therefore, the observation of the shadow may reveal information about the black hole and the accretion flow. We here study the shadows cast by stellar-mass black holes that are illuminated not by an accretion disk but by a stellar companion in a wide binary orbit. We calculate the shadows produced in such a configuration for the first time and show snapshots of the time-dependent shadow "movie" that is generated. We also study the minimal criteria for detecting and resolving such shadows with very-long-baseline-interferometric observations. We find that one would need telescopes capable of resolving apparent magnitudes greater than $33$ with baselines larger than $10^{6}$ km. Therefore, although very-long-baseline-interferometric efforts such as the Event Horizon Telescope would not be able to detect these shadows, their detection is possible with future telescopes in the next few decades.

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arXiv2018

Black Hole Shadow as a Test of General Relativity: Quadratic Gravity

Observations of the black hole shadow of supermassive black holes, such as Sagittarius A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, allow us to study the properties of black holes and the nature of strong-field gravity. According to the Kerr hypothesis, isolated, stationary, and axisymmetric astrophysical black holes are described by the Kerr metric. The Kerr hypothesis holds in General Relativity and in some modified gravity theories, but there are others in which it is violated. In principle, black hole shadow observations can be used to determine if the Kerr metric is the correct description for black holes, and in turn, they could be used to place constraints on modified gravity theories that do not admit the Kerr solution. We here investigate whether black hole shadow observations can constrain deviations from general relativity, focusing on two well-motivated modified quadratic gravity theories: Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet gravity and dynamical Chern-Simons gravity. We show that current constraints on Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet gravity are stronger than any that could be placed with black hole shadow observations of supermassive black holes. We also show that the same holds for dynamical Chern-Simons gravity through a systematic bias and a likelihood analysis when considering slowly-rotating supermassive black holes. However, observations of more rapidly-rotating black holes, with dimensionless spins $|\vec{J}|/M^{2}\simeq0.5$, could be used to better constrain dynamical Chern-Simons gravity.

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arXiv2018

Angular Momentum Loss for a Binary System in Einstein-Æther Theory

The recent gravitational wave observations provide insight into the extreme gravity regime of coalescing binaries, where gravity is strong, dynamical and non-linear. The interpretation of these observations relies on the comparison of the data to a gravitational wave model, which in turn depends on the orbital evolution of the binary, and in particular on its orbital energy and angular momentum decay. In this paper, we calculate the latter in the inspiral of a non-spinning compact binary system within Einstein-Æther theory. From the theory's gravitational wave stress energy tensor and a balance law, we compute the angular momentum decay both as a function of the fields in the theory and as a function of the multipole moments of the binary. We then specialize to a Keplerian parameterization of the orbit to express the angular momentum decay as a function of the binary's orbital elements. We conclude by combining this with the orbital energy decay to find expressions for the decay of the semi-major axis and the orbital eccentricity of the binary. We find that these rates of decay are typically faster in Einstein-Æther theory than in General Relativity due to the presence of dipole radiation. Such modifications will imprint onto the chirp rate of gravitational waves, leaving a signature of Einstein-Æther theory that if absent in the data could be used to stringently constrain it.

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arXiv2018

A Fourier Domain Waveform for Non-Spinning Binaries with Arbitrary Eccentricity

Although the gravitational waves observed by advanced LIGO and Virgo are consistent with compact binaries in a quasi-circular inspiral prior to coalescence, eccentric inspirals are also expected to occur in Nature. Due to their complexity, we currently lack ready-to-use, analytic waveforms in the Fourier domain valid for sufficiently high eccentricity, and such models are crucial to coherently extract weak signals from the noise. We here take the first steps to derive and properly validate an analytic waveform model in the Fourier domain that is valid for inspirals of arbitrary orbital eccentricity. As a proof-of-concept, we build this model to leading post-Newtonian order by combining the stationary phase approximation, a truncated sum of harmonics, and an analytic representation of hypergeometric functions. Through comparisons with numerical post-Newtonian waveforms, we determine how many harmonics are required for a faithful (matches above 99%) representation of the signal up to orbital eccentricities as large as 0.9. As a first byproduct of this analysis, we present a novel technique to maximize the match of eccentric signals over time of coalescence and phase at coalescence. As a second byproduct, we determine which of the different approximations we employ leads to the largest loss in match, which could be used to systematically improve the model because of our analytic control. The future extension of this model to higher post-Newtonian order will allow for an accurate and fast phenomenological hybrid that can account for arbitrary eccentricity inspirals and mergers.

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arXiv2018

The exact dynamical Chern Simons metric for a spinning black hole possesses a fourth constant of motion: A Dynamical-Systems-Based Conjecture

The recent gravitational wave observations by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration have allowed the first tests of General Relativity in the extreme gravity regime, when comparable-mass black holes and neutron stars collide. Future space-based detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, will allow tests of Einstein's theory with gravitational waves emitted when a small black hole falls into a supermassive one in an extreme mass-ratio inspiral. One particular test that is tailor-made for such inspirals is the search for chaos in extreme gravity. We here study whether chaos is present in the motion of test particles around spinning black holes of parity-violating modified gravity, focusing in particular on dynamical Chern-Simons gravity. We develop a resummation strategy that restores all spin terms in the General Relativity limit, while retaining up to fifth-order-in-spin terms in the dynamical Chern-Simons corrections to the Kerr metric. We then calculate Poincaré surfaces of section and rotation numbers of a wide family of geodesics of this resummed metric. We find no evidence for geodesic chaos, with at most deformations of the resonant torii that shrink as terms of higher-order in spin are included in the dynamical Chern-Simons corrections to the Kerr metric. Our numerical findings suggest that the geodesics of the as-of-yet unknown exact solution for spinning black holes in this theory may be integrable, and that there may thus exist a fourth integral of motion associated with this exact solution. The studies presented here begin to lay the foundations for chaotic tests of General Relativity with the observation of extreme mass ratio inspirals with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna.

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arXiv2018

Scalar Tops and Perturbed Quadrupoles: Probing Fundamental Physics with Spin-Precessing Binaries

Parity violation in the gravitational interaction has an important impact on fundamental observables and the evolution of the universe. We here investigate for the first time our ability to probe the parity violating nature of the gravitational interaction using gravitational waves from spin-precessing binaries. Focusing on dynamical Chern-Simons gravity, we derive the spin-precession equations, calculate the gravitational waves emitted by spin-precessing, quasi-circular black hole binaries and estimate the level to which the theory could be constrained with future gravitational wave observations.

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arXiv2018

Gravitational Waves Probes of Parity Violation in Compact Binary Coalescence

Is gravity parity violating? Given the recent observations of gravitational waves from coalescing compact binaries, we develop a strategy to find an answer with current and future detectors. We identify the key signatures of parity violation in gravitational waves: amplitude birefringence in their propagation and a modified chirping rate in their generation. We then determine the optimal binaries to test the existence of parity violation in gravity, and prioritize the research in modeling that will be required to carry out such tests before detectors reach their design sensitivity.

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arXiv2018

Gravitational wave spectroscopy of binary neutron star merger remnants with mode stacking

A binary neutron star (BNS) merger event has recently been observed in gravitational waves (GWs). As in the case of binary black holes, GWs generated by BNS consist of inspiral, merger, and post-merger components. Detecting the latter is important because it encodes information about the nuclear equation of state (EOS) in a regime that cannot be probed prior to merger. The post-merger signal, however, can be observed by current detectors only out to~ 10 Mpc. We carry out Monte-Carlo simulations showing that the dominant post-merger signal (the 22 mode) from individual events will likely not be observable even with the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer (CE), assuming a full year of operation, the latest merger rates, and a detection threshold with signal-to-noise ratio of 5. For this reason, we propose two methods that stack the post-merger signal from multiple events to boost the detection probability. The first method follows a commonly-used practice of multiplying the Bayes factors of individual events. The second method relies on an assumption that the mode phase can be determined from the inspiral waveform, so that coherent mode stacking of the data from different events becomes possible. Both methods significantly improve the chances of detecting the dominant post-merger signal, making a detection very likely after a year of observation with CE for certain EOS. We also show that in terms of detection, coherent stacking is more efficient in accumulating confidence. Moreover, assuming a 22 mode is detected with CE via stacking, we estimate through a Fisher analysis that the peak frequency can be measured to a statistical error of ~ 4-20 Hz for certain equations of state. Such an error corresponds to a NS radius measurement of ~ 15-56 m, a fractional relative error ~ 4 %, suggesting that systematic errors from theoretical modeling (~ 100 m) may dominate the error budget.

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arXiv2017

Constraining alternative theories of gravity using pulsar timing arrays

The opening of the gravitational wave window by ground-based laser interferometers has made possible many new tests of gravity, including the first constraints on polarization. It is hoped that within the next decade pulsar timing will extend the window by making the first detections in the nano-Hertz frequency regime. Pulsar timing offers several advantages over ground-based interferometers for constraining the polarization of gravitational waves due to the many projections of the polarization pattern provided by the different lines of sight to the pulsars, and the enhanced response to longitudinal polarizations. Here we show that existing results from pulsar timing arrays can be used to place stringent limits on the energy density of longitudinal stochastic gravitational waves. Paradoxically however, we find that longitudinal modes will be very difficult to detect due to the large variance in the pulsar-pulsar correlation patterns for these modes. Existing upper limits on the power spectrum of pulsar timing residuals imply that the amplitude of vector longitudinal and scalar longitudinal modes at frequencies of 1/year are constrained: ${\cal A}_{\rm VL} < 4.1\times 10^{-16}$ and ${\cal A}_{\rm SL} < 3.7\times 10^{-17}$, while the bounds on the energy density for a scale invariant cosmological background are: $Ω_{\rm VL}h^2 < 3.5 \times 10^{-11}$ and $Ω_{\rm SL}h^2 < 3.2 \times 10^{-13}$.

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arXiv2017

I-Love-Q Relations in Neutron Stars and their Applications to Astrophysics, Gravitational Waves and Fundamental Physics

The exterior gravitational field of a slowly-rotating neutron star can be characterized by its multipole moments, the first few being the neutron star mass, moment of inertia, and quadrupole moment to quadratic order in spin. In principle, all of these quantities depend on the neutron star's internal structure, and thus, on unknown nuclear physics at supra-nuclear energy densities. We here find relations between the moment of inertia, the Love numbers and the quadrupole moment (I-Love-Q relations) that do not depend sensitively on the neutron star's internal structure. Three important consequences derive from these I-Love-Q relations. On an observational astrophysics front, the measurement of a single member of the I-Love-Q trio would automatically provide information about the other two, even when the latter may not be observationally accessible. On a gravitational wave front, the I-Love-Q relations break the degeneracy between the quadrupole moment and the neutron-star spins in binary inspiral waveforms, allowing second-generation ground-based detectors to determine the (dimensionless) averaged spin to $\mathcal{O}(10)%$, given a sufficiently large signal-to-noise ratio detection. On a fundamental physics front, the I-Love-Q relations allow for tests of General Relativity in the neutron-star strong-field that are both theory- and internal structure-independent. As an example, by combining gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations, one may constrain dynamical Chern-Simons gravity in the future by more than 6 orders of magnitude more stringently than Solar System and table-top constraints.

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arXiv2017

Constructing Gravitational Waves from Generic Spin-Precessing Compact Binary Inspirals

The coalescence of compact objects is one of the most promising sources of gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors, such as advanced LIGO and Virgo. Generically, com- pact objects in binaries are expected to be spinning with spin angular momenta misaligned with the orbital angular momentum, causing the orbital plane to precess. This precession adds rich structure to the gravitational waves, introducing such complexity that an analytic closed-form description has been unavailable until now. We here construct the first closed-form frequency- domain gravitational waveforms that are valid for generic spin-precessing quasicircular compact binary inspirals. We first construct time-domain gravitational waves by solving the post-Newtonian precession equations of motion with radiation reaction through multiple scale analysis. We then Fourier transform these time-domain waveforms with the method of shifted uniform asymptotics to obtain closed-form expressions for frequency-domain waveforms. We study the accuracy of these analytic, frequency-domain waveforms relative to waveforms obtained by numerically evolving the post-Newtonian equations of motion and find that they are suitable for unbiased parameter estimation for 99.2%(94.6%) of the binary configurations we studied at a signal-to-noise ratio of 10(25). These new frequency-domain waveforms could be used for detection and parameter estimation studies due to their accuracy and low computational cost.

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