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Zhenwei Lyu

Publications and source records attributed to Zhenwei Lyu.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

Physics informed operator learning of parameter dependent spectra

Spectral problems governed by differential operators underpin a wide range of physical systems, yet remain computationally challenging because their spectra depend sensitively on continuous parameters and often demand repeated evaluations across parameter space. Here we present $\texttt{DeepOPiraKAN}$, an open source physics informed neural network architecture for spectral analysis. By combining operator learning with enhanced optimization stability, it captures the underlying parameter-to-spectrum mapping in a single model, avoiding repeated spectral solutions at isolated points in parameter space. As a representative and stringent benchmark, we apply this framework to the computation of quasinormal modes of Kerr black holes. A single trained network accurately resolves modes with $(\ell,m)\in \{(2,0),(2,1)\}$ and overtones up to $n=7$ across the full spin range, achieving relative errors of $\mathcal{O}(10^{-6})$ for the fundamental mode and gradually increasing to $\mathcal{O}(10^{-4})$ for higher overtones, benchmarked against the Leaver's method. This level of accuracy is already significant for black hole spectroscopy and practical ringdown modelling for current and future observatories. More broadly, these results highlight the potential of $\texttt{DeepOPiraKAN}$ as a general and scalable framework for parameter dependent spectral problems across complex physical systems.

gr-qc

Testing the strong equivalence principle with multimessenger binary neutron star mergers

The constancy of the gravitational constant $G$ is a cornerstone of the strong equivalence principle and of general relativity, yet its possible temporal variation remains a key target in tests of fundamental physics. Gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy, especially when combined with electromagnetic observations, provides an unprecedented new opportunity to probe this principle in the strong-field and dynamical regime. In this work, we develop a GW waveform model with a slowly varying gravitational constant, incorporating its effects both on compact binary dynamics and GW propagation in an expanding universe. Applying this framework to the binary neutron star merger GW170817, together with independent electromagnetic constraints on the luminosity distance, sky localization and binary inclination from GRB 170817A, we perform a joint Bayesian analysis that disentangles varying-$G$ effects from astrophysical degeneracies. We find no evidence for a temporal variation of the gravitational constant, and constrain its fractional time derivative to $\dot{G}/G \in [-3.36 \times 10^{-9}, 5.34\times10^{-10}]~{\rm yr^{-1}}$, representing the most stringent bounds obtained to date from real GW observations. Our results demonstrate the power of multi-messenger astronomy as a precision probe of the strong equivalence principle in the relativistic regime.

gr-qc

From Stars to Waves: Non-deterministic Inference of Microlensed Gravitational Waves

Strongly lensed gravitational waves may pass through the stellar field of a lensing galaxy with additional modulations (on both phase and amplitude) due to gravitational microlensing effect of stars/remnants near the line of sight. These microlensed waveforms depend on the mass and location of thousands or more most relevant stars, so that their deterministic reconstruction from the data is computationally prohibitive. We classify the detection and parameter estimation of such events as non-deterministic inference problem and propose a solution with the implementation of normalizing flows. As a first step, we show that $8\%$ of microlensed events can be detected with significance $\ge 3 \sigma$ in the third generation era, with the chosen microlensing parameters correlated with the density of the underlying stellar field. This approach opens the door to probing microlensing effects and the properties of the underlying stellar fields. A similar construction may also be applied to other non-deterministic inference problems, such as detecting post-merger gravitational waves from binary neutron star coalescence and signals from core-collapse supernovae.

gr-qc

Toward Efficient and Accurate EMRI Parameter Estimation: A Machine Learning-Enhanced MCMC Framework

The detection of gravitational waves from extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) in space-based antennas like Taiji and Laser Interferometer Space Antenna promises deep insights into strong-field gravity and black hole physics. However, the complex, highly degenerate, and nonconvex likelihood landscapes characteristic of EMRI parameter spaces pose severe challenges for conventional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. Under realistic instrumental noise and broad priors, these methods demand impractical computational costs but are prone to becoming trapped in local maxima, leading to biased and unreliable parameter estimates. To address these challenges, we introduce flow-matching MCMC (FM-MCMC), a novel Bayesian framework that integrates continuous normalizing flows (CNFs) with parallel tempering MCMC (PTMCMC). By generating high-likelihood regions via CNFs and refining them through PTMCMC, FM-MCMC enables robust exploration of the nontrivial parameter spaces, achieves orders-of-magnitude improvement in computational efficiency, and, more importantly, ensures statistically unbiased inference. By enabling real-time, unbiased parameter inference, FM-MCMC could unlock the full scientific potential of EMRI observations, and would serve as a scalable pipeline for precision gravitational-wave astronomy.

gr-qc

Gravitational-wave constraints on noncommutative spacetime from GW190814

Recent advances in noncommutative geometry and string theory have stimulated increasing research on noncommutative gravity. The detection of gravitational waves~(GW) opens a new window for testing this theory using observed data. In particular, the leading correction from noncommutative gravity to the GW of compact binary coalescences appears at the second post-Newtonian~(2PN) order. This correction is proportional to the dimensionless parameter $\Lambda\equiv|\theta^{0i}|/(l_Pt_P)$, where $\theta^{0i}$ denotes the antisymmetric tensor characterizing noncommutative spacetime, and $l_P, t_P$ represent the Plank length and time, respectively. Previous study have used the phase deviation from general relativity at the 2PN order, as measured in GW150914, to constrain noncommutative gravity, resulting in an upper bound of $\sqrt{\Lambda}\lesssim3.5$. Another analysis, based on multiple events from the GWTC-1 catalog, has obtained consistent bounds. In this work, we construct the noncommutative gravity waveform in the Parameterized Post-Einsteinian framework. Based on the \texttt{IMRPhenomXHM} template, we incorporate both the dominant (2,2) mode and several higher-order modes, including (2,1), (3,3), (3,2), and (4,4). We first reanalyze the GW150914 with a Bayesian parameter estimation and derive a 95th percentile upper bound on noncommutative gravity, obtaining $\sqrt{\Lambda}<0.68$. We then analyze GW190814 and obtain an even tighter 95th percentile upper bound of $\sqrt{\Lambda}<0.46$, which corresponds to a characteristic noncommutative gravity energy scale above $2.2\,E_P$ or a length scale below $0.46\,l_P$. This represent the strongest constraint on noncommutative gravity derived from real GW observations to date.

gr-qc

Prospects for Time-Domain and Multi-Messenger Science with eXTP

In this new era of time-domain and multi-messenger astronomy, various new transients and new phenomena are constantly being discovered thanks to the rapid advances in observations, which provide the excellent opportunity to study the physics in the extreme environments. The enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission (eXTP), planned to be launched in 2030, has several key advantages, including advanced polarimetry, high sensitivity & large effective area, and wide energy range coverage, which make it a groundbreaking project in high-energy astrophysics. In this article, we briefly introduce the potential time-domain and multi-messenger targets for eXTP, including gravitational-wave (GW) counterparts, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), magnetars and fast radio bursts (FRBs), tidal disruption events (TDEs), supernovae, high energy neutrinos and TeV active galactic nucleus (AGNs), and so on. We discuss the advantages of future eXTP observations for detecting these sources, their detection capabilities, the abilities to distinguish theoretical models, and their applications in gravity and cosmology.

astro-ph.HE

Science Opportunities of Wet Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals

Wet extreme mass-ratio inspirals (wet EMRIs), which arise from stellar-mass black holes inspiral into supermassive black holes (SMBHs) within the gas-rich environments of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), are primary sources of gravitational waves (GWs) for space-borne detectors like LISA, TianQin, and Taiji. Unlike "dry EMRIs", which form through gravitational scattering in nuclear star clusters, wet EMRIs are naturally accompanied by interactions with accretion disks, offering rich multi-messenger science opportunities. They are distinct in generating transient electromagnetic (EM) signals, such as quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs), which serve as valuable probes of accretion disk physics and SMBH environments. Their GW signals provide an unprecedented precision of the order of $O(10^{-4}\sim 10^{-6})$ in measuring SMBH mass and spin, enabling the calibration of traditional EM techniques and offering insights into jet formation models. Additionally, wet EMRIs serve as bright and dark sirens for cosmology, facilitating percent-level precision measurements of Hubble parameter through AGN host identification or statistical association. These systems hold immense potential for advancing our understanding of black hole dynamics, accretion physics, and cosmology.

astro-ph.HE

Probing Spin-Induced Quadrupole Moments in Precessing Compact Binaries

Spin-induced quadrupole moments provide an important characterization of compact objects, such as black holes, neutron stars and black hole mimickers inspired by additional fields and/or modified theories of gravity. Black holes in general relativity have a specific spin-induced quadrupole moment, with other objects potentially having differing values. Different values of this quadrupole moment lead to modifications of the spin precession dynamics, and consequently modifications to the inspiral waveform. Based on the spin-dynamics and the associated precessing waveform developed in our previous work, we assess the prospects of measuring spin-induced moments in various black hole, neutron star, and black-hole mimicker binaries. We focus on binaries in which at least one of the objects is in the mass gap (similar to the $2.6 M_\odot$ object found in GW190814). We find that for generic precessing binaries, the effect of the spin-induced quadrupole moments on the precession is sensitive to the nature of the mass-gap object, i.e., whether it is a light black hole or a massive neutron star. So that this is a good probe of the nature of these objects. For precessing black-hole mimicker binaries, this waveform also provides significantly tighter constraints on their spin-induced quadrupole moments than the previous results obtained without incorporating the precession effects of spin-induced quadrupole moments. We apply the waveform to sample events in GWTC catalogs to obtain better constraints on the spin-induced quadrupole moments, and discuss the measurement prospects for events in the O$4$ run of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration.

gr-qc

Measuring Mass Transfer Rates in Coalescing Neutron Star--White Dwarf Binaries with Deci-Hz Gravitational-wave Detectors

Coalescing neutron star--white dwarf (NS-WD) binaries are among the primary targets for upcoming space-borne gravitational wave (GW) detectors such as LISA, TaiJi, TianQin, etc. During close interaction, these binaries undergo mass transfer, emitting simultaneous X-rays and GWs. This offers a unique opportunity to measure mass transfer rates and study compact binary evolution. To analyze mass transfer rates, we employ the TaylorF2 frequency domain waveform model within the stationary phase approximation (SPA). Through this approach, we derive the GW phase induced during the mass transfer phase and perform Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations to estimate the minimal detectable mass transfer rate given specific signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Our results suggest that for a NS-WD binary with a $0.5 \rm M_\odot$ white dwarf companion, we could measure mass transfer rates down to $10^{-7}\rm M_\odot , {\rm yr}^{-1}$ at SNR=20 and $10^{-9}\rm M_\odot , {\rm yr}^{-1}$ at SNR=1000. This measurement holds significance for studying compact binary evolution involving mass transfer and has potential applications in forecasting tidal disruption events.

gr-qc

Constraints on Einstein-dilaton-Gauss-Bonnet gravity from Black Hole-Neutron Star Gravitational Wave Events

Recent gravitational wave observations allow us to probe gravity in the strong and dynamical field regime. In this paper, we focus on testing Einstein-dilaton Gauss-Bonnet gravity which is motivated by string theory. In particular, we use two new neutron star black hole binaries (GW200105 and GW200115). We also consider GW190814 which is consistent with both a binary black hole and a neutron star black hole binary. Adopting the leading post-Newtonian correction and carrying out a Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo analyses, we derive the 90\% credible upper bound on the coupling constant of the theory as $\sqrt{α_{GB}} \lesssim 1.33\,\rm km$, whose consistency is checked with an independent Fisher analysis. This bound is stronger than the bound obtained in previous literature by combining selected binary black hole events in GWTC-1 and GWTC-2 catalogs. We also derive a combined bound of $\sqrt{α_{GB}} \lesssim 1.18\,\rm km$ by stacking GW200105, GW200115, GW190814, and selected binary black hole events. In order to check the validity of the effect of higher post-Newtonian terms, we derive corrections to the waveform phase up to second post Newtonian order by mapping results in scalar-tensor theories to Einstein-dilaton Gauss-Bonnet gravity. We find that such higher-order terms improve the bounds by $14.5\%$ for GW200105 and $6.9\%$ for GW200115 respectively.

gr-qc

Efficient fully precessing gravitational waveforms for binaries with neutron stars

We construct an efficient frequency domain waveform for generic circular compact object binaries that include neutron stars. The orbital precession is solved on the radiation reaction timescale (and then transformed to the frequency domain), which is used to map the non-precessional waveform from the source frame of the binary to the lab frame. The treatment of orbital precession is different from that for precessional binary black holes, as $χ_{\rm eff}$ is no longer conserved due to the spin-induced quadrupole moments of neutron stars. We show that the new waveform achieves $\le 10^{-4}$ mismatch compared with waveforms generated by numerically evolved precession for neutron star-black hole systems for $\ge 90\%$ configurations with component mass/spin magnitude assumed in the analysis and randomized initial spin directions. We expect this waveform to be useful to test the nature of the mass-gap objects similar to the one discovered in GW 190814 by measuring their spin-induced quadrupole moments, as it is possible that these mass-gap objects are rapidly spinning. It is also applicable for the tests of black hole mimickers in precessional binary black hole events, if the black hole mimicker candidates have nontrivial spin-induced quadrupole moments.

gr-qc

Mass-gap extreme mass ratio inspirals

In this work, we propose a new subclass of extreme-mass-ratio-inspirals (EMRIs): mass-gap EMRIs, consisting of a compact object in the lower mass gap $\sim (2.5-5) M_\odot$ and a massive black hole (MBH). The mass-gap object (MGO) may be a primordial black hole or produced from a delayed supernova explosion. We calculate the formation rate of mass-gap EMRIs in both the (dry) loss-cone channel and the (wet) active galactic nucleus disk channel by solving Fokker-Planck-type equations for the phase-space distribution. In the dry channel, the mass-gap EMRI rate is strongly suppressed compared to the EMRI rate of stellar-mass black holes (sBHs) as a result of mass segregation effect. In the wet channel, the suppression is roughly equal to the mass ratio of sBHs over MGOs, because the migration speed of a compact object in an active galactic nucleus disk is proportional to its mass. We find that the wet channel is much more promising to produce mass-gap EMRIs observable by spaceborne gravitation wave detectors. (Non-)detection of mass-gap EMRIs may be used to distinguish different supernova explosion mechanisms and constrainthe abundance of primordial black holes around MBHs.

astro-ph.HE

Tick-Tock: The Imminent Merger of a Supermassive Black Hole Binary

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHs) are a fascinating byproduct of galaxy mergers in the hierarchical universe. In the last stage of their orbital evolution, gravitational wave radiation drives the binary inspiral and produces the loudest siren awaiting to be detected by gravitational wave observatories. Periodically varying emission from active galactic nuclei has been proposed as a powerful approach to probe such systems, although none of the identified candidates are close to their final coalescence such that the observed periods stay constant in time. In this work, we report on the first system with rapid decaying periods revealed by its optical and X-ray light curves, which has decreased from about one year to one month in three years. Together with its optical hydrogen line spectroscopy, we propose that the system is an uneven mass-ratio, highly eccentric SMBH binary which will merge within three years, as predicted by the trajectory evolution model. If the interpretation is true, coordinated, multi-band electromagnetic campaign should be planned for this first binary SMBH merger event observed in human history, together with possible neutrino measurements. Gravitational wave memory from this event may also be detectable by Pulsar Timing Array with additional five-to-ten year observation.

astro-ph.HE

First Constraints on Nuclear Coupling of Axionlike Particles from the Binary Neutron Star Gravitational Wave Event GW170817

Light axion fields, if they exist, can be sourced by neutron stars due to their coupling to nuclear matter, and play a role in binary neutron star mergers. We report on a search for such axions by analysing the gravitational waves from the binary neutron star inspiral GW170817. We find no evidence of axions in the sampled parameter space. The null result allows us to impose constraints on axions with masses below $10^{-11} {\rm eV}$ by excluding the ones with decay constants ranging from $1.6\times10^{16} {\rm GeV}$ to $10^{18} {\rm GeV}$ at $3σ$ confidence level. Our analysis provides the first constraints on axions from neutron star inspirals, and rules out a large region in parameter space that has not been probed by the existing experiments.

hep-ph

Wet Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals May Be More Common For Spaceborne Gravitational Wave Detection

Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs) can be classified as dry EMRIs and wet EMRIs based on their formation mechanisms. Dry (or the "loss-cone") EMRIs, previously considered as the main EMRI sources for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, are primarily produced by multi-body scattering in the nuclear star cluster and gravitational capture. In this work, we highlight an alternative EMRI formation channel: (wet) EMRI formation assisted by the accretion flow around accreting galactic-center massive black holes (MBHs). In this channel, the accretion disk captures stellar-mass black holes that are intially moving on inclined orbits, and subsequently drives them to migrate towards the MBH - this process boosts the formation rate of EMRIs in such galaxies by orders of magnitude. Taking into account the fraction ($\mathcal O(10^{-2}-10^{-1})$) of active galactic nuclei where the MBHs are expected to be rapidly accreting, we forecast that wet EMRIs will contribute an important or even dominant fraction of all detectable EMRIs by spaceborne gravitational wave detectors.

astro-ph.HE

Black-Hole Perturbation Plus Post-Newtonian Theory: Hybrid Waveform for Neutron Star Binaries

We consider the motion of nonspinning, compact objects orbiting around a Kerr black hole with tidal couplings. The tide-induced quadrupole moment modifies both the orbital energy and outgoing fluxes, so that over the inspiral timescale there is an accumulative shift in the orbital and gravitational wave phase. Previous studies on compact object tidal effects have been carried out in the Post-Newtonian (PN) and Effective-One-Body (EOB) formalisms. In this work, within the black hole perturbation framework, we propose to characterize the tidal influence in the expansion of mass ratios, while higher-order PN corrections are naturally included. For the equatorial and circular orbit, we derive the leading order, frequency dependent tidal phase shift which agrees with the Post-Newtonian result at low frequencies but deviates at high frequencies. We also find that such phase shift has weak dependence ($\le 10\%$) on the spin of the primary black hole. Combining this black hole perturbation waveform with the Post-Newtonian waveform, we propose a frequency-domain, hybrid waveform that shows comparable accuracy as the EOB waveform in characterizing the tidal effects, as calibrated by numerical relativity simulations. Further improvement is expected as the next-leading order in mass ratio and the higher-PN tidal corrections are included. This hybrid approach is also applicable for generating binary black hole waveforms.

gr-qc

Probing Crust Meltdown in Inspiraling Binary Neutron Stars

Thanks to recent measurements of tidal deformability and radius, the nuclear equation of state and structure of neutron stars are now better understood. Here, we show that through resonant tidal excitations in a binary inspiral, the neutron crust generically undergoes elastic-to-plastic transition, which leads to crust heating and eventually meltdown. This process could induce $\sim \mathcal{O}(0.1)$ phase shift in the gravitational waveform. Detecting the timing and induced phase shift of this crust meltdown will shed light on the crust structure, such as the core-crust transition density, which previous measurements are insensitive to. A direct search using GW170817 data has not found this signal, possibly due to limited signal-to-noise ratio. We predict that such signal may be observable with Advanced LIGO Plus and more likely with third-generation gravitational-wave detectors such as the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer.

astro-ph.HE