{"title":"Binary Neutron Star Mergers","authors":"Joshua A. Faber, Frederic A. Rasio","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>We review the current status of studies of the coalescence of binary neutron star systems. We begin with a discussion of the formation channels of merging binaries and we discuss the most recent theoretical predictions for merger rates. Next, we turn to the quasi-equilibrium formalisms that are used to study binaries prior to the merger phase and to generate initial data for fully dynamical simulations. The quasi-equilibrium approximation has played a key role in developing our understanding of the physics of binary coalescence and, in particular, of the orbital instability processes that can drive binaries to merger at the end of their lifetimes. We then turn to the numerical techniques used in dynamical simulations, including relativistic formalisms, (magneto-)hydrodynamics, gravitational-wave extraction techniques, and nuclear microphysics treatments. This is followed by a summary of the simulations performed across the field to date, including the most recent results from both fully relativistic and microphysically detailed simulations. Finally, we discuss the likely directions for the field as we transition from the first to the second generation of gravitational-wave interferometers and while supercomputers reach the petascale frontier.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4165614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Piotr T. Chruściel, João Lopes Costa, Markus Heusler
{"title":"Stationary Black Holes: Uniqueness and Beyond","authors":"Piotr T. Chruściel, João Lopes Costa, Markus Heusler","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The spectrum of known black-hole solutions to the stationary Einstein equations has been steadily increasing, sometimes in unexpected ways. In particular, it has turned out that not all black-hole-equilibrium configurations are characterized by their mass, angular momentum and global charges. Moreover, the high degree of symmetry displayed by vacuum and electro-vacuum black-hole spacetimes ceases to exist in self-gravitating non-linear field theories. This text aims to review some developments in the subject and to discuss them in light of the uniqueness theorem for the Einstein-Maxwell system.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-7","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5125539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamical Boson Stars","authors":"Steven L. Liebling, Carlos Palenzuela","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The idea of stable, localized bundles of energy has strong appeal as a model for particles. In the 1950s, John Wheeler envisioned such bundles as smooth configurations of electromagnetic energy that he called <i>geons</i>, but none were found. Instead, particle-like solutions were found in the late 1960s with the addition of a scalar field, and these were given the name <i>boson stars</i>. Since then, boson stars find use in a wide variety of models as sources of dark matter, as black hole mimickers, in simple models of binary systems, and as a tool in finding black holes in higher dimensions with only a single Killing vector. We discuss important varieties of boson stars, their dynamic properties, and some of their uses, concentrating on recent efforts.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4350898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Quantum Measurement Theory in Gravitational-Wave Detectors","authors":"Stefan L. Danilishin, Farid Ya. Khalili","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The fast progress in improving the sensitivity of the gravitational-wave detectors, we all have witnessed in the recent years, has propelled the scientific community to the point at which quantum behavior of such immense measurement devices as kilometer-long interferometers starts to matter. The time when their sensitivity will be mainly limited by the quantum noise of light is around the corner, and finding ways to reduce it will become a necessity. Therefore, the primary goal we pursued in this review was to familiarize a broad spectrum of readers with the theory of quantum measurements in the very form it finds application in the area of gravitational-wave detection. We focus on how quantum noise arises in gravitational-wave interferometers and what limitations it imposes on the achievable sensitivity. We start from the very basic concepts and gradually advance to the general linear quantum measurement theory and its application to the calculation of quantum noise in the contemporary and planned interferometric detectors of gravitational radiation of the first and second generation. Special attention is paid to the concept of the Standard Quantum Limit and the methods of its surmounting.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-5","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4990598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Gravitational-Wave Data Analysis. Formalism and Sample Applications: The Gaussian Case","authors":"Piotr Jaranowski, Andrzej Królak","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The article reviews the statistical theory of signal detection in application to analysis of deterministic gravitational-wave signals in the noise of a detector. Statistical foundations for the theory of signal detection and parameter estimation are presented. Several tools needed for both theoretical evaluation of the optimal data analysis methods and for their practical implementation are introduced. They include optimal signal-to-noise ratio, Fisher matrix, false alarm and detection probabilities, <span>({mathcal F})</span>-statistic, template placement, and fitting factor. These tools apply to the case of signals buried in a stationary and Gaussian noise. Algorithms to efficiently implement the optimal data analysis techniques are discussed. Formulas are given for a general gravitational-wave signal that includes as special cases most of the deterministic signals of interest.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-4","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4390116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Brane Effective Actions, Kappa-Symmetry and Applications","authors":"Joan Simón","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This is a review on brane effective actions, their symmetries and some of their applications. Its first part covers the Green-Schwarz formulation of single M- and D-brane effective actions focusing on kinematical aspects: the identification of their degrees of freedom, the importance of world volume diffeomorphisms and kappa symmetry to achieve manifest spacetime covariance and supersymmetry, and the explicit construction of such actions in arbitrary on-shell supergravity backgrounds.</p><p>Its second part deals with applications. First, the use of kappa symmetry to determine supersymmetric world volume solitons. This includes their explicit construction in flat and curved backgrounds, their interpretation as Bogomol’nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) states carrying (topological) charges in the supersymmetry algebra and the connection between supersymmetry and Hamiltonian BPS bounds. When available, I emphasise the use of these solitons as constituents in microscopic models of black holes. Second, the use of probe approximations to infer about the non-trivial dynamics of strongly-coupled gauge theories using the anti de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. This includes expectation values of Wilson loop operators, spectrum information and the general use of D-brane probes to approximate the dynamics of systems with small number of degrees of freedom interacting with larger systems allowing a dual gravitational description.</p><p>Its final part briefly discusses effective actions for <i>N</i> D-branes and M2-branes. This includes both Super-Yang-Mills theories, their higher-order corrections and partial results in covariantising these couplings to curved backgrounds, and the more recent supersymmetric Chern-Simons matter theories describing M2-branes using field theory, brane constructions and 3-algebra considerations.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-3","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5035156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Characteristic Evolution and Matching","authors":"Jeffrey Winicour","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p>I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity based upon the characteristic initial-value problem. Progress in characteristic evolution is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D-axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a binary black-hole spacetime. Cauchy codes have now been successful at simulating all aspects of the binary black-hole problem inside an artificially constructed outer boundary. A prime application of characteristic evolution is to extend such simulations to null infinity where the waveform from the binary inspiral and merger can be unambiguously computed. This has now been accomplished by Cauchy-characteristic extraction, where data for the characteristic evolution is supplied by Cauchy data on an extraction worldtube inside the artificial outer boundary. The ultimate application of characteristic evolution is to eliminate the role of this outer boundary by constructing a global solution via Cauchy-characteristic matching. Progress in this direction is discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-2","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4965146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Null Geodesic Congruences, Asymptotically-Flat Spacetimes and Their Physical Interpretation","authors":"Timothy M. Adamo, Ezra T. Newman, Carlos Kozameh","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2012-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2012-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A priori, there is nothing very special about shear-free or asymptotically shear-free null geodesic congruences. Surprisingly, however, they turn out to possess a large number of fascinating geometric properties and to be closely related, in the context of general relativity, to a variety of physically significant effects. It is the purpose of this paper to try to fully develop these issues.</p><p>This work starts with a detailed exposition of the theory of shear-free and asymptotically shear-free null geodesic congruences, i.e., congruences with shear that vanishes at future conformal null infinity. A major portion of the exposition lies in the analysis of the space of regular shear-free and asymptotically shear-free null geodesic congruences. This analysis leads to the space of complex analytic curves in an auxiliary four-complex dimensional space, <span>({mathcal H})</span>-space. They in turn play a dominant role in the applications.</p><p>The applications center around the problem of extracting interior physical properties of an asymptotically-flat spacetime directly from the asymptotic gravitational (and Maxwell) field itself, in analogy with the determination of total charge by an integral over the Maxwell field at infinity or the identification of the interior mass (and its loss) by (Bondi’s) integrals of the Weyl tensor, also at infinity.</p><p>More specifically, we will see that the asymptotically shear-free congruences lead us to an asymptotic definition of the center-of-mass and its equations of motion. This includes a kinematic meaning, in terms of the center-of-mass motion, for the Bondi three-momentum. In addition, we obtain insights into intrinsic spin and, in general, angular momentum, including an angular-momentum-conservation law with well-defined flux terms. When a Maxwell field is present, the asymptotically shear-free congruences allow us to determine/define at infinity a center-of-charge world line and intrinsic magnetic dipole moment.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2012-1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4888413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Entanglement Entropy of Black Holes","authors":"Sergey N. Solodukhin","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2011-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2011-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The entanglement entropy is a fundamental quantity, which characterizes the correlations between sub-systems in a larger quantum-mechanical system. For two sub-systems separated by a surface the entanglement entropy is proportional to the area of the surface and depends on the UV cutoff, which regulates the short-distance correlations. The geometrical nature of entanglement-entropy calculation is particularly intriguing when applied to black holes when the entangling surface is the black-hole horizon. I review a variety of aspects of this calculation: the useful mathematical tools such as the geometry of spaces with conical singularities and the heat kernel method, the UV divergences in the entropy and their renormalization, the logarithmic terms in the entanglement entropy in four and six dimensions and their relation to the conformal anomalies. The focus in the review is on the systematic use of the conical singularity method. The relations to other known approaches such as ’t Hooft’s <i>brick-wall</i> model and the Euclidean path integral in the optical metric are discussed in detail. The puzzling behavior of the entanglement entropy due to fields, which non-minimally couple to gravity, is emphasized. The holographic description of the entanglement entropy of the blackhole horizon is illustrated on the two- and four-dimensional examples. Finally, I examine the possibility to interpret the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy entirely as the entanglement entropy.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2011-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2011-8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"4842168","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Motion of Point Particles in Curved Spacetime","authors":"Eric Poisson, Adam Pound, Ian Vega","doi":"10.12942/lrr-2011-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12942/lrr-2011-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This review is concerned with the motion of a point scalar charge, a point electric charge, and a point mass in a specified background spacetime. In each of the three cases the particle produces a field that behaves as outgoing radiation in the wave zone, and therefore removes energy from the particle. In the near zone the field acts on the particle and gives rise to a self-force that prevents the particle from moving on a geodesic of the background spacetime. The self-force contains both conservative and dissipative terms, and the latter are responsible for the radiation reaction. The work done by the self-force matches the energy radiated away by the particle.</p><p>The field’s action on the particle is difficult to calculate because of its singular nature: the field diverges at the position of the particle. But it is possible to isolate the field’s singular part and show that it exerts no force on the particle — its only effect is to contribute to the particle’s inertia. What remains after subtraction is a regular field that is fully responsible for the self-force. Because this field satisfies a homogeneous wave equation, it can be thought of as a free field that interacts with the particle; it is this interaction that gives rise to the self-force.</p><p>The mathematical tools required to derive the equations of motion of a point scalar charge, a point electric charge, and a point mass in a specified background spacetime are developed here from scratch. The review begins with a discussion of the basic theory of bitensors (Part I). It then applies the theory to the construction of convenient coordinate systems to chart a neighbourhood of the particle’s word line (Part II). It continues with a thorough discussion of Green’s functions in curved spacetime (Part III). The review presents a detailed derivation of each of the three equations of motion (Part IV). Because the notion of a point mass is problematic in general relativity, the review concludes (Part V) with an alternative derivation of the equations of motion that applies to a small body of arbitrary internal structure.</p>","PeriodicalId":686,"journal":{"name":"Living Reviews in Relativity","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":40.6,"publicationDate":"2011-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.12942/lrr-2011-7","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"5131854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}