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Predrag Jovanovic

Publications and source records attributed to Predrag Jovanovic.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

A way to constrain a graviton mass from astronomical observations

Along with a whole range of alternative theories of gravity, variants of the massive theory of gravity, i.e. the theory of gravity, in which the graviton has mass, have been actively discussed in recent years. Theorists have proposed versions of massive gravity theories that address the shortcomings of early versions of such theories. Astrophysicists and experimental physicists have been discussing limitations on the graviton mass from various astronomical observations. In particular, in the first LIGO paper, where the discovery of gravitational waves from binary black holes was reported, a limit on the mass of the graviton was obtained from the analysis of the profile of the gravitational wave signal. In the paper graviton mass constraints were obtained by analyzing the trajectory of a bright star in the vicinity of the center of our Galaxy, using observations from the GRAVITY and Keck groups. Briefly other astronomical ways to limit a graviton mass were discussed.

gr-qc

Different ways to estimate graviton mass

An experimental detection of graviton is extremely hard problem, however, there are different ways to evaluate a graviton mass if it is non-vanishing. Theories of massive gravity or theories with non-vanishing graviton mass initially have a number of pathologies such as discontinuities, ghosts etc. In last years theorists found ways to overcome weaknesses of such theories meanwhile observational features are also discussed. In the first publication reporting about the discovery of gravitational waves from the binary black hole system the LIGO-Virgo collaboration obtained the graviton mass constraint around $1.2 \times 10^{-22}$ eV (later the estimate was improved with new data). A comparable and consistent graviton mass constraint around $2.9 \times 10^{-21}$ eV has been obtained from analysis of the bright star S2 trajectory near the Galactic Center.

gr-qc

Constraining the range of Yukawa gravity interaction from S2 star orbits II: Bounds on graviton mass

Recently LIGO collaboration discovered gravitational waves \cite{Abbott_16} predicted 100 years ago by A. Einstein. Moreover, in the key paper reporting about the discovery, the joint LIGO \& VIRGO team presented an upper limit on graviton mass such as $m_g < 1.2 \times 10^{-22} eV$ (Abbott et al. (LIGO collaboration) PRL 116 (2016) 061102). Since the graviton mass limit is so small the authors concluded that their observational data do not show violations of classical general relativity. We consider another opportunity to evaluate a graviton mass from phenomenological consequences of massive gravity and show that an analysis of bright star trajectories could bound graviton mass with a comparable accuracy with accuracies reached with gravitational wave interferometers and expected with forthcoming pulsar timing observations for gravitational wave detection. It gives an opportunity to treat observations of bright stars near the Galactic Center as a wonderful tool not only for an evaluation specific parameters of the black hole but also to obtain constraints on the fundamental gravity law such as a modifications of Newton gravity law in a weak field approximation. In particular, we obtain bounds on a graviton mass based on a potential reconstruction at the Galactic Center.

gr-qc

Influence of Microlensing on Spectral Anomaly of Lensed Objects

Here we consider the influence of the microlensing on the spectrum of a lensed object taking into account that composite emission is coming from different regions arranged subsequently around the central source. We assumed that the lensed object has three regions with the black body emission; first the innermost with the highest temperature of $10^4K$, second and third (located around the central) with slightly lower temperatures $7.5\cdot10^3$ and $5\cdot10^3$K, respectively. Than we explore the flux anomaly in lensed object due to microlensing. We compare U,V and B spectra of a such source. This results show that, due to microlensing, in a spectroscopically stratified object a flux anomaly is present.

astro-ph.CO

Photo-centric variability of quasars caused by variations in their inner structure: Consequences on Gaia measurements

We study the photocenter position variability due to variations in the quasar inner structure. We consider variability in the accretion disk emissivity and torus structure variability due to different illumination by the central source. We discuss possible detection of these effects by Gaia. Observations of the photocenter variability in two AGNs, SDSS J121855+020002 and SDSS J162011+1724327 have been reported and discussed. With investigation of the variations in the quasar inner structure we explore how much this effect can affect the position determination and whether it can be (or not) detected with Gaia mission. We used (a) a model of a relativistic disk, including the perturbation that can increase brightness of a part of the disk, and consequently offset the photocenter position, and (b) a model of a dusty torus which absorbs and re-emits the incoming radiation from accretion disk. We estimated the value of the photocenter offset due to these two effects. We found that perturbations in the inner structure can significantly offset the photocenter. It depends on the characteristics of perturbation and accretion disk and structure of the torus. In the case of two considered QSOs the observed photocenter offsets cannot be explained by variations in the accretion disk and other effects should be considered. We discussed possibility of exploding stars very close to the AGN source, and also possibility that there are two variable sources in the center of these two AGNs that may indicate a binary super-massive black hole system on a kpc (pc) scale. The Gaia mission seems to be very perspective, not only for astrometry, but also for exploring the inner structure of AGNs. We conclude that variations in the quasar inner structure can affect the observed photocenter (up to several mas). There is a chance to observe such effect in the case of bright and low-redshifted QSOs.

astro-ph.GA

Contribution of microlensing to X-ray variability of distant QSOs

We consider a contribution of microlensing to the X-ray variability of high-redshifted QSOs. Cosmologically distributed gravitational microlenses could be localized in galaxies (or even in bulge or halo of gravitational macrolenses) or could be distributed in a uniform way. We have analyzed both cases of such distributions. We found that the optical depth for gravitational microlensing caused by cosmologically distributed deflectors could be significant and could reach $10^{-2} - 0.1$ at $z\sim 2$. This means that cosmologically distributed deflectors may contribute significantlly to the X-ray variability of high-redshifted QSOs ($z>2$). Considering that the upper limit of the optical depth ($τ\sim 0.1$) corresponds to the case where dark matter forms cosmologically distributed deflectors, observations of the X-ray variations of unlensed QSOs can be used for the estimation of the dark matter fraction of microlenses.

astro-ph