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Nov 5

Finetuning AI Foundation Models to Develop Subgrid-Scale Parameterizations: A Case Study on Atmospheric Gravity Waves

Global climate models parameterize a range of atmospheric-oceanic processes like gravity waves, clouds, moist convection, and turbulence that cannot be sufficiently resolved. These subgrid-scale closures for unresolved processes are a leading source of model uncertainty. Here, we present a new approach to developing machine learning parameterizations of small-scale climate processes by fine-tuning a pre-trained AI foundation model (FM). FMs are largely unexplored in climate research. A pre-trained encoder-decoder from a 2.3 billion parameter FM (NASA and IBM Research's Prithvi WxC) -- which contains a latent probabilistic representation of atmospheric evolution -- is fine-tuned (or reused) to create a deep learning parameterization for atmospheric gravity waves (GWs). The parameterization captures GW effects for a coarse-resolution climate model by learning the fluxes from an atmospheric reanalysis with 10 times finer resolution. A comparison of monthly averages and instantaneous evolution with a machine learning model baseline (an Attention U-Net) reveals superior predictive performance of the FM parameterization throughout the atmosphere, even in regions excluded from pre-training. This performance boost is quantified using the Hellinger distance, which is 0.11 for the baseline and 0.06 for the fine-tuned model. Our findings emphasize the versatility and reusability of FMs, which could be used to accomplish a range of atmosphere- and climate-related applications, leading the way for the creation of observations-driven and physically accurate parameterizations for more earth-system processes.

  • 8 authors
·
Sep 3, 2025

Gravitational waves in massive gravity: Waveforms generated by a particle plunging into a black hole and the excitation of quasinormal modes and quasibound states

With the aim of testing massive gravity in the context of black hole physics, we investigate the gravitational radiation emitted by a massive particle plunging into a Schwarzschild black hole from slightly below the innermost stable circular orbit. To do so, we first construct the quasinormal and quasibound resonance spectra of the spin-2 massive field for odd and even parity. Then, we compute the waveforms produced by the plunging particle and study their spectral content. This allows us to highlight and interpret important phenomena in the plunge regime, including (i) the excitation of quasibound states, with particular emphasis on the amplification and slow decay of the post-ringdown phase of the even-parity dipolar mode due to harmonic resonance; (ii) during the adiabatic phase, the waveform emitted by the plunging particle is very well described by the waveform emitted by the particle living on the innermost stable circular orbit, and (iii) the regularized waveforms and their unregularized counterparts constructed from the quasinormal mode spectrum are in excellent agreement. Finally, we construct, for arbitrary directions of observation and, in particular, outside the orbital plane of the plunging particle, the regularized multipolar waveforms, i.e., the waveforms constructed by summing over partial waveforms.

  • 1 authors
·
Nov 25, 2024

The Duality of Whittaker Potential Theory: Fundamental Representations of Electromagnetism and Gravity, and Their Orthogonality

E. T. Whittaker produced two papers in 1903 and 1904 that, although sometimes considered mere mathematical statements (Barrett, 1993), held important implications for physical theory. The Whittaker 1903 paper united electrostatic and gravitational attraction as resulting from longitudinal waves - waves whose wavefronts propagate parallel to their direction. The Whittaker 1904 paper showed that electromagnetic waves resulted from the interference of two such longitudinal waves or scalar potential functions. Although unexplored, the implications of these papers are profound: gravitational lensing, gravitational waves, the Aharonov-Bohm effect, the existence of a hyperspace above or behind normal space, the elimination of gravitational and point charge singularities, MOND, and the expansion of the universe. This last implication can be related to the recent finding that black holes with posited vacuum energy interior solutions alongside cosmological boundaries have a cosmological coupling constant of k=3, meaning that black holes gain mass-proportional to a3 in a parameterization equation within a Robertson-Walker cosmology and are a cosmological accelerated expansion species (Farrah et al., 2023). This expansion and many features of General Relativity can be explained by the mass-proportionality and preferred direction of the longitudinal waves within the two underlying non-local Whittaker potentials (Titleman, 2022). Whittaker potential theory also offers a simple explanation for expansion of the universe - it is produced as longitudinal motion within the Whittaker potentials only when dynamic electromagnetism is separate from time-static gravity in intergalactic space.

  • 1 authors
·
May 13, 2022

Mapping gravitational-wave backgrounds in modified theories of gravity using pulsar timing arrays

We extend our previous work on applying CMB techniques to the mapping of gravitational-wave backgrounds to backgrounds which have non-GR polarisations. Our analysis and results are presented in the context of pulsar-timing array observations, but the overarching methods are general, and can be easily applied to LIGO or eLISA observations using appropriately modified response functions. Analytic expressions for the pulsar-timing response to gravitational waves with non-GR polarisation are given for each mode of a spin-weighted spherical-harmonic decomposition of the background, which permit the signal to be mapped across the sky to any desired resolution. We also derive the pulsar-timing overlap reduction functions for the various non-GR polarisations, finding analytic forms for anisotropic backgrounds with scalar-transverse ("breathing") and vector-longitudinal polarisations, and a semi-analytic form for scalar-longitudinal backgrounds. Our results indicate that pulsar-timing observations will be completely insensitive to scalar-transverse mode anisotropies in the polarisation amplitude beyond dipole, and anisotropies in the power beyond quadrupole. Analogously to our previous findings that pulsar-timing observations lack sensitivity to tensor-curl modes for a transverse-traceless tensor background, we also find insensitivity to vector-curl modes for a vector-longitudinal background.

  • 3 authors
·
Jun 29, 2015

Rescaled Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity Inflation

We study the inflationary phenomenology of a rescaled Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. In this framework, the gravitational constant of the Einstein-Hilbert term is rescaled due to effective terms active in the high curvature era. Basically, the total theory is an F(R,G,phi) theory with the Gauss-Bonnet part contributing only a non-minimal coupling to the scalar field, so it is a theory with string theory origins and with a non-trivial F(R) gravity part. The F(R) gravity part in the high curvature regime contributes only a rescaled Einstein-Hilbert term and thus the resulting theory is effectively a rescaled version of a standard Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory. We develop the formalism of rescaled Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, taking in account the GW170817 constraints on the gravitational wave speed. We show explicitly how the rescaled theory affects directly the primordial scalar and tensor perturbations, and how the slow-roll and observational indices of inflation are affected by the rescaling of the theory. We perform a thorough phenomenological analysis of several models of interest and we show that is it possible to obtain viable inflationary theories compatible with the latest Planck data. Also among the studied models there are cases that yield a relatively large blue tilted tensor spectral index and we demonstrate that these models can lead to detectable primordial gravitational waves in the future gravitational wave experiments. Some of the scenarios examined, for specific values of the reheating temperature may be detectable by SKA, LISA, BBO, DECIGO and the Einstein Telescope.

  • 5 authors
·
Mar 22, 2025

A Bayesian ILC method for CMB B-mode posterior estimation and reconstruction of primordial gravity wave signal

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation B mode polarization signal contains the unique signature of primordial metric perturbations produced during the inflation. The separation of the weak CMB B-mode signal from strong foreground contamination in observed maps is a complex task, and proposed new generation low noise satellite missions compete with the weak signal level of this gravitational background. In this article, for the first time, we employ a foreground model-independent internal linear combination (ILC) method to reconstruct the CMB B mode signal using simulated observations over large angular scales of the sky of 6 frequency bands of future generation CMB mission Probe of Inflation and Cosmic Origins (PICO). We estimate the joint CMB B mode posterior density following the interleaving Gibbs steps of B mode angular power spectrum and cleaned map samples using the ILC method. We extend and improve the earlier reported Bayesian ILC method to analyze weak CMB B mode reconstruction by introducing noise bias corrections at two stages during the ILC weight estimation. By performing 200 Monte Carlo simulations of the Bayesian ILC method, we find that our method can reconstruct the CMB signals and the joint posterior density accurately over large angular scales of the sky. We estimate Blackwell-Rao statistics of the marginal density of CMB B mode angular power spectrum and use them to estimate the joint density of scalar to tensor ratio r and a lensing power spectrum amplitude A^{lens}. Using 200 Monte Carlo simulations of the delensing approach, we find that our method can achieve an unbiased detection of the primordial gravitational wave signal r with more than 8σ significance for levels of r geqslant 0.01.

  • 2 authors
·
Sep 29, 2020

Soap Film Drainage Under Tunable Gravity Using a Centrifugal Thin Film Balance

Surface bubbles are an abundant source of aerosols, with important implications for climate processes. In this context, we investigate the stability and thinning dynamics of soap films under effective gravity fields. Experiments are performed using a centrifugal thin-film balance capable of generating accelerations from 0.2 up to 100 times standard gravity, combined with thin-film interferometry to obtain time-resolved thickness maps. Across all experimental conditions, the drainage dynamics are shown to be governed by capillary suction and marginal regeneration-a mechanism in which thick regions of the film are continuously replaced by thin film elements (TFEs) formed at the meniscus. We consistently recover a thickness ratio of 0.8 - 0.9 between the TFEs and the adjacent film, in agreement with previous observations under standard gravity. The measured thinning rates also follow the predicted scaling laws. We identified that gravity has three distinct effects: (i) it induces a strong stretching of the initial film, extending well beyond the linear-elastic regime; (ii) it controls the meniscus size, and thereby the amplitude of the capillary suction and the drainage rate; and (iii) it reveals an inertia-to-viscous transition in the motion of TFEs within the film. These results are supported by theoretical modeling and highlight the robustness of marginal regeneration and capillary-driven drainage under extreme gravity conditions.

  • 6 authors
·
Nov 11, 2025

Higgs-Induced Gravitational Waves: the Interplay of Non-Minimal Couplings, Kination and Top Quark Mass

We explore a minimal scenario where the sole Standard-Model Higgs is responsible for reheating the Universe after inflation, produces a significant background of gravitational waves and maintains the full classical stability of the electroweak vacuum. As the Higgs self-coupling runs toward negative values at high energy scales, a non-minimal interaction with curvature during a stiff background expansion era drives the Higgs fluctuations closer to the instability scale. This curvature-induced tachyonic instability leads to an intense production of Higgs particles, accompanied by a stochastic gravitational-wave background. The characteristic features of such signal can be directly correlated to the inflationary scale, the non-minimal coupling parameter and the top quark Yukawa coupling. We distinguish between three possible scenarios: absolute stability with low top quark masses, potential vacuum instability, and absolute stability with new physics above the instability scale. Our findings suggest that the detection of a peaked background of gravitational waves together with its inflationary tail has the potential to unveil the features of the Higgs effective potential at very high energy scales while providing a minimal explanation for the reheating phase and the emergence of the Standard-Model plasma in the early Universe. Unlike other studies in the literature, the generation of gravitational waves in our scenario does not depend on the quantum instability of the Standard Model vacuum.

  • 2 authors
·
Feb 6, 2025

Astrometric Effects of a Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background

A stochastic gravitational wave background causes the apparent positions of distant sources to fluctuate, with angular deflections of order the characteristic strain amplitude of the gravitational waves. These fluctuations may be detectable with high precision astrometry, as first suggested by Braginsky et al. in 1990. Several researchers have made order of magnitude estimates of the upper limits obtainable on the gravitational wave spectrum \Omega_gw(f), at frequencies of order f ~ 1 yr^-1, both for the future space-based optical interferometry missions GAIA and SIM, and for VLBI interferometry in radio wavelengths with the SKA. For GAIA, tracking N ~ 10^6 quasars over a time of T ~ 1 yr with an angular accuracy of \Delta \theta ~ 10 \mu as would yield a sensitivity level of \Omega_gw ~ (\Delta \theta)^2/(N T^2 H_0^2) ~ 10^-6, which would be comparable with pulsar timing. In this paper we take a first step toward firming up these estimates by computing in detail the statistical properties of the angular deflections caused by a stochastic background. We compute analytically the two point correlation function of the deflections on the sphere, and the spectrum as a function of frequency and angular scale. The fluctuations are concentrated at low frequencies (for a scale invariant stochastic background), and at large angular scales, starting with the quadrupole. The magnetic-type and electric-type pieces of the fluctuations have equal amounts of power.

  • 2 authors
·
Sep 21, 2010

GraviBERT: Transformer-based inference for gravitational-wave time series

We introduce GraviBERT, a novel deep learning framework for gravitational wave inference, built on a multi-scale feature extractor with a transformer encoder and a suitable regression head. A key novelty of GraviBERT is its staged training: a BERT-style self-supervised pretraining phase to learn transferable representations, followed by supervised fine-tuning on labeled data. GraviBERT demonstrates consistent transfer learning across detector configurations and waveform models. On in-domain data, pretraining reduces the MAE by up to 31% and accelerates convergence by sim 6.6 times, with mean relative precision for point estimates reaching the few-percent level and MAE in effective spin of sim 10^{-3} at SNR = 10. For domain adaptation to new detector noise profiles, the pretrained model converges up to 15times faster on small target datasets and reduces estimation errors by up to sim 47%, demonstrating detector-agnostic learning. Cross-waveform approximant transfer achieves up to 44% MAE reductions and up to 15times training speedups, with R^2 scores consistently exceeding 0.9 for mass parameters at SNR = 10 compared to 0.74 - 0.87 when training from scratch. GraviBERT works directly with noisy waveforms, and in its current form quantifies predictive uncertainty through MC dropouts. After pretraining, the regression head could be adapted to multiple downstream inference tasks in gravitational-wave astronomy.

  • 2 authors
·
Feb 22

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

Post-merger gravitational wave echoes provide a unique opportunity to probe the near-horizon structure of astrophysical black holes, that may be modified due to non-perturbative quantum gravity phenomena. However, since the waveform is subject to large theoretical uncertainties, it is necessary to develop model-agnostic search methods 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 model-agnostic search for QNMs of different shapes by using a simple search template. 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-agnostic approach to "quantum black hole seismology".

  • 4 authors
·
Aug 2, 2023

Digital Discovery of interferometric Gravitational Wave Detectors

Gravitational waves, detected a century after they were first theorized, are spacetime distortions caused by some of the most cataclysmic events in the universe, including black hole mergers and supernovae. The successful detection of these waves has been made possible by ingenious detectors designed by human experts. Beyond these successful designs, the vast space of experimental configurations remains largely unexplored, offering an exciting territory potentially rich in innovative and unconventional detection strategies. Here, we demonstrate the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to systematically explore this enormous space, revealing novel topologies for gravitational wave (GW) detectors that outperform current next-generation designs under realistic experimental constraints. Our results span a broad range of astrophysical targets, such as black hole and neutron star mergers, supernovae, and primordial GW sources. Moreover, we are able to conceptualize the initially unorthodox discovered designs, emphasizing the potential of using AI algorithms not only in discovering but also in understanding these novel topologies. We've assembled more than 50 superior solutions in a publicly available Gravitational Wave Detector Zoo which could lead to many new surprising techniques. At a bigger picture, our approach is not limited to gravitational wave detectors and can be extended to AI-driven design of experiments across diverse domains of fundamental physics.

  • 3 authors
·
Dec 5, 2023 1

Droplet-triggered Faraday waves in a vertically forced bath

Repeated impacts of a droplet on a vertically forced bath can produce a growing Faraday-wave response under forcing conditions for which the corresponding initially undisturbed bath remains linearly stable. We investigate this mechanism using axisymmetric two-phase direct numerical simulations over a wide range of Reynolds and Weber numbers. The resulting phenomenological regime map identifies quasi-periodic, decaying, faint, and unstable-bath responses. Along the parameter path considered here, the transition to the unstable-bath regime occurs over a narrow range of Weber numbers and varies only weakly with Reynolds number. In the unstable regime, the bath develops a coherent subharmonic response at half the forcing frequency, while disturbances in the decaying regime remain broadband and weaken between successive rebounds. Bath-only simulations show that a finite-amplitude perturbation representative of droplet impact can seed the confined radial mode susceptible to parametric forcing, initiating a growing subharmonic response below the linear instability threshold of the initially flat bath. A reduced capillary-dominated model provides a scaling estimate for the impact-equivalent perturbation amplitude, and bath-only simulations initialized with these perturbations reproduce the bounded-to-growing transition observed in the coupled simulations. Floquet analysis of the finite cylindrical bath identifies the first axisymmetric Neumann mode as having the lowest subharmonic instability threshold. A time-resolved Bessel decomposition independently shows that the growing bath response is dominated by the same radial mode, while the droplet-induced subharmonic response projects predominantly onto this structure. These results identify a finite-amplitude route by which localized droplet impacts can access Faraday-wave dynamics below the linear onset threshold of an initially undisturbed bath.

  • 2 authors
·
Oct 3

Localized Heating and Dynamics of the Solar Corona due to a Symbiosis of Waves and Reconnection

The Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, is maintained at mega-Kelvin temperatures and fills the heliosphere with a supersonic outflowing wind. The dissipation of magnetic waves and direct electric currents are likely to be the most significant processes for heating the corona, but a lively debate exists on their relative roles. Here, we suggest that the two are often intrinsically linked, since magnetic waves may trigger current dissipation, and impulsive reconnection can launch magnetic waves. We present a study of the first of these processes by using a 2D physics-based numerical simulation using the Adaptive Mesh Refined (AMR) Versatile Advection Code (VAC). Magnetic waves such as fast magnetoacoustic waves are often observed to propagate in the large-scale corona and interact with local magnetic structures. The present numerical simulations show how the propagation of magnetic disturbances towards a null point or separator can lead to the accumulation of the electric currents. Lorentz forces can laterally push and vertically stretch the magnetic fields, forming a current sheet with a strong magnetic-field gradient. The magnetic field lines then break and reconnect, and so contribute towards coronal heating. Numerical results are presented that support these ideas and support the concept of a symbiosis between waves and reconnection in heating the solar corona.

  • 9 authors
·
Mar 20, 2025

Analytical sensitivity curves of the second-generation time-delay interferometry

Forthcoming space-based gravitational-wave (GW) detectors will employ second-generation time-delay interferometry (TDI) to suppress laser frequency noise and achieve the sensitivity required for GW detection. We introduce an inverse light-path operator P_{i_{1}i_{2}i_{3}ldots i_{n-1}i_{n}}, which enables simple representation of second-generation TDI combinations and a concise description of light propagation. Analytical expressions and high-accuracy approximate formulas are derived for the sky- and polarization-averaged response functions, noise power spectral densities (PSDs), and sensitivity curves of TDI Michelson, (alpha,beta,gamma), Monitor, Beacon, Relay, and Sagnac combinations, as well as their orthogonal A, E, T channels. Our results show that: (i) second-generation TDIs have the same sensitivities as their first-generation counterparts; (ii) the A, E, T sensitivities and the optimal sensitivity are independent of the TDI generation and specific combination; (iii) the A and E channels have equal averaged responses, noise PSDs, and sensitivities, while the T channel has much weaker response and sensitivity at low frequencies (2pi fL/clesssim3); (iv) except for the (alpha,beta,gamma) and zeta combinations and the T channel, all sensitivity curves exhibit a flat section in the range f_{n}<flesssim 1.5/(2pi L/c), where the noise-balance frequency f_{n} separates the proof-mass- and optical-path-dominated regimes, while the response-transition frequency sim 1.5/(2pi L/c) separates the response function's low- and high-frequency behaviors; (v) the averaged response, noise PSD, and sensitivity of zeta scales with those of the T channel. These analytical and approximate formulations provide useful benchmarks for instrument optimization and data-analysis studies for future space-based GW detectors.

  • 1 authors
·
Nov 3, 2025

Suppression of spiral density waves in collisionless accretion flows

Spiral density waves are ubiquitous phenomena in differentially rotating flows. They are non-modal, non-axisymmetric perturbations that, due to shear in the background flow, possess time-evolving wavenumbers, frequencies, and amplitudes. In global simulations of optically thin, low-luminosity black-hole accretion flows, the excitation of such waves leads to spiral patterns in the plasma density that influence the morphology of the emission region. As such, the observed variabilities of such accretion flows are expected to be affected by the behavior of spiral density waves. Thus far, investigations of spiral density waves in accretion flows have exclusively used the assumption that the accretion-flow plasmas are in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) at all times. In reality, hot and diffuse accretion-flow plasmas are expected to deviate far from LTE, and should be modeled accordingly. Here, we employ a combination of kinetic and fluid models to describe spiral density wave propagation, damping, and excitation in a collisionless shearing sheet, which more accurately represents the plasma conditions of low-luminosity accretion flows than do models that assume LTE. We find that micro-physical plasma instabilities are especially important in determining how spiral density waves behave, because the weak particle scattering that they induce leads to appreciable viscous damping. Observational implications of these results include reduced emission-region variability, which may improve agreement between Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations and simulation/theory, as well as a reduction in emission-region pattern speeds compared to simulations employing LTE, which bears on the interpretation of eventual EHT movies.

  • 3 authors
·
Sep 30

Third-order scalar induced gravitational waves during a matter-dominated era: secular growth and implications for primordial black hole domination

We investigate scalar induced gravitational waves (SIGWs) at third-order during a matter-dominated (MD) era. We classify the sources into four parts---built from three first-order scalars, and from a first-order scalar times the second-order tensor, vector, and scalar perturbations---and obtain all four kernel functions analytically in closed form. Unlike their radiation-dominated counterparts, the MD kernel functions grow secularly, translating into a rapid growth of the spectrum, Ω^{(3)}_{GW}propto x^{6} versus Ω^{(2)}_{GW}propto x^{2} at xequiv kηgg1. We derive the third-order power spectrum as a five-fold integral for a general primordial spectrum, and evaluate it numerically for a monochromatic one, where all contributions from the second-order vector source vanish identically. As an application, we consider the early MD era driven by primordial black holes (PBHs) before their evaporation. Requiring that the induced gravitational waves do not backreact on the cosmological perturbations, intdln k, Ω^{tot}_{GW}<1 then bounds the initial PBH abundance as Ω_{PBH,f}lesssim4.6times10^{-7}, (m_{PBH}/10^{7},g)^{-0.48}, about three orders of magnitude stronger than the second-order-only bound. Our results indicate that higher-order SIGWs inevitably become nonperturbative during a sufficiently long MD era, with important implications for scenarios involving an early matter domination.

  • 1 authors
·
Oct 5

BICEP / Keck XIII: Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck, WMAP, and BICEP/Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season

We present results from an analysis of all data taken by the BICEP2, Keck Array and BICEP3 CMB polarization experiments up to and including the 2018 observing season. We add additional Keck Array observations at 220 GHz and BICEP3 observations at 95 GHz to the previous 95/150/220 GHz data set. The Q/U maps now reach depths of 2.8, 2.8 and 8.8 μ{mathrm K}_{cmb} arcmin at 95, 150 and 220 GHz respectively over an effective area of approx 600 square degrees at 95 GHz and approx 400 square degrees at 150 & 220 GHz. The 220 GHz maps now achieve a signal-to-noise on polarized dust emission exceeding that of Planck at 353 GHz. We take auto- and cross-spectra between these maps and publicly available WMAP and Planck maps at frequencies from 23 to 353 GHz and evaluate the joint likelihood of the spectra versus a multicomponent model of lensed-ΛCDM+r+dust+synchrotron+noise. The foreground model has seven parameters, and no longer requires a prior on the frequency spectral index of the dust emission taken from measurements on other regions of the sky. This model is an adequate description of the data at the current noise levels. The likelihood analysis yields the constraint r_{0.05}<0.036 at 95% confidence. Running maximum likelihood search on simulations we obtain unbiased results and find that σ(r)=0.009. These are the strongest constraints to date on primordial gravitational waves.

  • 92 authors
·
Sep 30, 2021

Coronal Abundance Fractionation Linked to Chromospheric Transverse MHD Waves in a Solar Active Region Observed with FISS/GST and EIS/Hinode

Elemental abundances in the solar corona differ from those in the photosphere, with low first ionization potential (FIP) elements being enhanced, a phenomenon known as the FIP effect. This enhancement is attributed to ponderomotive forces linked to magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves, particularly incompressible transverse waves. Our study investigates the relationship between coronal abundance fractionation and chromospheric transverse MHD waves by examining the spatial correlation between FIP fractionation and these waves and by analyzing their properties to test the ponderomotive force model. We used H alpha data from the Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph at the Goode Solar Telescope to detect chromospheric transverse MHD waves and Si{X} (low FIP) and S{X} (high FIP) spectra from Hinode EUV Imaging Spectrometer to determine relative abundances in an active region. Extrapolated linear force free magnetic fields from Solar Dynamics Observatory/Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager magnetograms further linked the observed chromospheric waves with coronal composition. Approximately 400 wave packets were identified and characterized by their period, velocity amplitude, propagation speed, and direction. These incompressible or weakly compressible waves were mainly observed near loop footpoints in the sunspot penumbra and superpenumbral fibrils. Regions of high FIP fractionation coincided with closed magnetic fields where these waves were present, and low-frequency, downward-propagating waves comprised about 43/% of the total. Our results demonstrate a strong correlation between coronal abundance fractionation and chromospheric transverse MHD waves, supporting the view that the FIP effect is driven by the ponderomotive force from these waves.

  • 8 authors
·
Feb 26, 2025

The NANOGrav Nine-year Data Set: Limits on the Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background

We compute upper limits on the nanohertz-frequency isotropic stochastic gravitational wave background (GWB) using the 9-year data release from the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration. We set upper limits for a GWB from supermassive black hole binaries under power law, broken power law, and free spectral coefficient GW spectrum models. We place a 95\% upper limit on the strain amplitude (at a frequency of yr^{-1}) in the power law model of A_{rm gw} < 1.5times 10^{-15}. For a broken power law model, we place priors on the strain amplitude derived from simulations of Sesana (2013) and McWilliams et al. (2014). We find that the data favor a broken power law to a pure power law with odds ratios of 22 and 2.2 to one for the McWilliams and Sesana prior models, respectively. The McWilliams model is essentially ruled out by the data, and the Sesana model is in tension with the data under the assumption of a pure power law. Using the broken power-law analysis we construct posterior distributions on environmental factors that drive the binary to the GW-driven regime including the stellar mass density for stellar-scattering, mass accretion rate for circumbinary disk interaction, and orbital eccentricity for eccentric binaries, marking the first time that the shape of the GWB spectrum has been used to make astrophysical inferences. We then place the most stringent limits so far on the energy density of relic GWs, Omega_gw(f),h^2 < 4.2 times 10^{-10}, yielding a limit on the Hubble parameter during inflation of H_*=1.6times10^{-2}~m_{Pl}, where m_{Pl} is the Planck mass. Our limit on the cosmic string GWB, Omega_gw(f), h^2 < 2.2 times 10^{-10}, translates to a conservative limit of Gmu<3.3times 10^{-8} - a factor of 4 better than the joint Planck and high-l CMB data from other experiments.

  • 48 authors
·
Aug 12, 2015

Enhanced Gravitational Effects of Radiation and Cosmological Implications

In the momentarily comoving frame of a cosmological fluid, the determinant of the energy-momentum tensor (EMT) is highly sensitive to its pressure. This component is significant during radiation-dominated epochs and becomes naturally negligible as the universe transitions to the matter-dominated era. Here, we investigate the cosmological consequences of gravity sourced by the determinant of the EMT. Unlike Azri and Nasri, Phys. Lett. B 836, 137626 (2023), we consider the most general scenario in which the second order variation of the perfect-fluid Lagrangian does not vanish. We analyze the dynamics of the power-law case and explore the cosmological implications of the scale-free model characterized by dimensionless couplings to photons and neutrinos. We show that, unlike various theories based on the EMT, the present setup, which leads to enhanced gravitational effects of radiation (EGER), does not alter the time evolution of the energy density of particle species. Using current cosmological observations, we constrain the model parameters and show that EGER may offer a viable mechanism for alleviating the Hubble tension. Although it exhibits a phenomenological analogy to tightly-coupled relativistic fluid scenarios, EGER remains purely gravitational in origin and yields distinguishable signatures in the small-scale anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background. The radiation-gravity couplings we propose here are expected to yield testable cosmological and astrophysical signatures, probing whether gravity distinguishes between relativistic and nonrelativistic species in the early universe.

  • 3 authors
·
Sep 22, 2025

Numerical Construction of Quasi-Periodic Solutions for Nonlinear PDEs: I. Bounded Perturbation

In this paper, we propose an alternating numerical scheme for constructing quasi-periodic solutions to a class of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) with bounded perturbations, including the one-dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equations and nonlinear wave (NLW) equations under periodic and Dirichlet boundary conditions. A key observation concerning the resonant Q-equations allows us to establish directly a local diffeomorphism between the amplitudes and the drifted frequencies. This renders the proof considerably cleaner, since it avoids the Birkhoff normal form and the associated coordinate transformations required in classical KAM theory for PDEs.Unlike in the finite-dimensional setting, the lattice boxes must also include the spatial index, so that the multiscale induction has to be carried out in one additional dimension. This introduces two difficulties. First, the measure estimate for the excluded set of ``bad'' frequencies must account for the spatial index. For both the NLS and NLW equations, the linear frequencies and their differences are integers or close to integers; this allows the spatial dependence to be controlled through the modulus of the temporal index, so that the excluded measure remains under control. Second, a singular set may contain sites with the same temporal index but widely separated spatial indices, which obstructs the ``inversion implies localization'' process. For the one-dimensional NLS and NLW equations, however, such sites occur only in pairs with opposite spatial indices. They can therefore be separated by small boxes, after which the global inverse is obtained from the local inverses via the resolvent identity. Numerical experiments illustrate the scheme for nonlinear traveling and standing waves, exhibiting both the computed quasi-periodic solutions and the convergence of the iteration.

  • 2 authors
·
Oct 4

Wave optics lensing of gravitational waves: theory and phenomenology of triple systems in the LISA band

We study lensing of gravitational waves by a black hole in the deep wave optics regime, i.e. when the wavelength is much larger than the black hole Schwarzschild radius. We apply it to triple systems, with a binary of stellar mass objects in the inspiraling phase orbiting around a central massive black hole. We describe the full polarisation structure of the wave and derive predictions for the polarisation modes of the scattered wave measured by the observer. We show that lensing in the wave optics regime is not helicity preserving, as opposed to lensing in the geometric optics regime. The amplitude of the total wave is modulated due to interference between the directly transmitted and lensed components. The relative amplitude of the modulation is fixed by the lensing geometry and can reach unity in the most favourable settings. This indicates that wave optics lensing is potentially detectable by LISA for sufficiently high SNR systems. Our findings show that in the wave optics regime it is necessary to go beyond the usual lensing description where the amplification factor is assumed to be the same for both helicity modes. While motivated by GW190521 and the AGN formation scenario, our results apply more broadly to stellar-mass binaries orbiting a third body described as a Schwarzschild black hole, with a period comparable to the GW observation time.

  • 4 authors
·
Apr 10, 2024

Transition from decaying to decayless kink oscillations of solar coronal loops

The transition of an impulsively excited kink oscillation of a solar coronal loop to an oscillation with a stationary amplitude, i.e., the damping pattern, is determined using the low-dimensional self-oscillation model. In the model, the decayless kink oscillations are sustained by the interaction of the oscillating loop with an external quasi-steady flow. The analytical solution is based on the assumption that the combined effect of the effective dissipation, for example, by resonant absorption, and interaction with an external flow, is weak. The effect is characterised by a dimensionless coupling parameter. The damping pattern is found to depend upon the initial amplitude and the coupling parameter. The approximate expression shows a good agreement with a numerical solution of the self-oscillation equation. The plausibility of the established damping pattern is demonstrated by an observational example. Notably, the damping pattern is not exponential, and the characteristic decay time is different from the time determined by the traditionally used exponential damping fit. Implications of this finding for seismology of the solar coronal plasmas are discussed. In particular, it is suggested that a very rapid, in less than the oscillation period, decay of the oscillation to the stationary level, achieved for larger values of the coupling parameter, can explain the relative rareness of the kink oscillation events.

  • 3 authors
·
Jun 10, 2024

Ionization waves (striations) in low-current DC discharges in noble gases obtained with a hybrid kinetic-fluid model

A hybrid kinetic-fluid model is used to study ionization waves (striations) in a low-current plasma column of DC discharges in noble gases. Coupled solutions of a kinetic equation for electrons, a drift-diffusion equation of ions, and a Poisson equation for the electric field are obtained to clarify the nature of plasma stratification in the positive column and near-electrode effects. A simplified two-level excitation-ionization model is used for the conditions when the nonlinear effects due to stepwise ionization, gas heating, and Coulomb interactions among electrons are negligible. It is confirmed that the nonlocal effects are responsible for the formation of moving striations in DC discharges at low plasma densities. The calculated properties of self-excited waves of S, P, and R types in Neon and S type in Argon agree with available experimental data. The reason for Helium plasma stability to stratification is clarified. It is shown that sustaining stratified plasma is more efficient than striation-free plasma when the ionization rate is a nonlinear function of the electric field. However, the nonlinear dependence of the ionization rate on the electric field is not required for plasma stratification. Striations of S, P, and R types in Neon exist with minimal or no ionization enhancement. Effects of the column length on the wave properties have been demonstrated in our simulations.

  • 2 authors
·
Dec 10, 2022

An Exactly Solvable Ekman Layer with a Fractional-Order Stress Closure

The classical theory of the wind-driven surface layer of a rotating ocean closes the momentum balance with a local flux-gradient law, in which the turbulent stress at a given depth is proportional to the shear at that depth. It predicts a surface current deflected forty-five degrees from the wind, which exceeds most direct measurements. This study asks what follows when locality is relaxed. Beginning from the exact integral relation between turbulent stress and mean shear, and requiring the memory kernel to carry no preferred vertical scale, we obtain a power-law kernel and therefore a stress law of fractional order. The resulting equation cannot be posed on the velocity, because the fractional derivative of a bounded profile vanishes at the surface, so the wind stress cannot be applied, while the alternative definition of the derivative leaves the surface current unbounded. Posed on the stress instead, the problem is solvable in closed form in Mittag-Leffler functions at every order between zero and one. The surface deflection then depends on the closure order alone and is smaller than forty-five degrees throughout, whereas the depth-integrated transport stays exactly normal to the wind, because that constraint follows from the momentum balance and not from the closure. The far field decays as a power law rather than exponentially, and its amplitude vanishes in the local limit, so that limit is singular. Under a suddenly applied stress the surface transient decays algebraically. Three independent algorithms agree closely, and no observational or model data are used.

  • 6 authors
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Sep 18

On the Second-Order Positive Burgers' Equation: Integrability, Lax Pair, Darboux Transformations, and Lie Symmetry Reduction

This paper derives the second-order positive Burgers' equation from the standard Burgers' hierarchy to explore its complete integrability and exact analytical solutions. We construct this higher-order nonlinear evolution equation by systematically applying the recursion operator to the classical Burgers' equation. Expanding on this structural framework, we then derive the explicit third-order equation and use Complete Bell Polynomials to generalize the n-th order hierarchy. Through the Cole-Hopf transformation, the second-order nonlinear equation rigorously maps to the linear third-order dispersion equation. We establish complete integrability by explicitly formulating the scalar Lax pair (zero-curvature representation), which allows us to directly derive the associated differential and algebraic Darboux transformations. To systematically classify explicit stationary, time-dependent traveling wave, and self-similar profiles, we apply several techniques to the linear domain: separation of variables, the Hirota perturbation method, traveling wave reduction via the Complete Discrimination System for Polynomial Method (CDSPM), and Lie similarity reduction. Crucially, our analysis demonstrates the exact finite truncation of the Hirota perturbation series. We conclude by outlining how this equation impacts the theoretical understanding of fluid dynamics, nonlinear transport phenomena, and higher-order wave propagation.

  • 2 authors
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Aug 12

A Comprehensive Perturbative Formalism for Phase Mixing in Perturbed Disks. II. Phase Spirals in an Inhomogeneous Disk Galaxy with a Non-responsive Dark Matter Halo

We develop a linear perturbative formalism to compute the response of an inhomogeneous stellar disk embedded in a non-responsive dark matter halo to perturbations like bars, spiral arms and satellite galaxy encounters. Without self-gravity to reinforce it, the response of a Fourier mode phase mixes away due to an intrinsic spread in the vertical (Omega_z), radial (Omega_r) and azimuthal (Omega_phi) frequencies, giving rise to local phase-space spirals. Collisional diffusion due to scattering of stars by structures like giant molecular clouds causes super-exponential damping of the phase-spiral amplitude. The z-v_z phase-spiral is 1-armed (2-armed) for vertically anti-symmetric (symmetric) bending (breathing) modes. Only transient perturbations with timescales (tau_{P}) comparable to the vertical oscillation period (tau_z sim 1/Omega_z) trigger z-v_z phase-spirals. Each (n,l,m) mode of the response to impulsive (tau_{P}<tau=1/(nOmega_z+lOmega_r+mOmega_phi)) perturbations is power law (sim tau_{P}/tau) suppressed, but that to adiabatic (tau_{P}>tau) perturbations is exponentially weak (sim left[-left(tau_{mathrm{P}/tauright)^alpharight]}) except resonant (tauto infty) modes. Slower (tau_{P}>tau_z) perturbations, e.g., distant encounters with satellite galaxies, induce stronger bending modes. If the Gaia phase-spiral was triggered by a satellite, Sagittarius is the leading contender as it dominates the Solar neighborhood response of the Milky Way disk to satellite encounters. However, survival against collisional damping necessitates that the impact occurred within sim 0.6-0.7 Gyr ago. We discuss how the detailed galactic potential dictates the phase-spiral shape: phase mixing occurs slower and phase-spirals are less wound in the outer disk and in presence of an ambient halo.

  • 3 authors
·
Feb 28, 2023

Prithvi WxC: Foundation Model for Weather and Climate

Triggered by the realization that AI emulators can rival the performance of traditional numerical weather prediction models running on HPC systems, there is now an increasing number of large AI models that address use cases such as forecasting, downscaling, or nowcasting. While the parallel developments in the AI literature focus on foundation models -- models that can be effectively tuned to address multiple, different use cases -- the developments on the weather and climate side largely focus on single-use cases with particular emphasis on mid-range forecasting. We close this gap by introducing Prithvi WxC, a 2.3 billion parameter foundation model developed using 160 variables from the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2). Prithvi WxC employs an encoder-decoder-based architecture, incorporating concepts from various recent transformer models to effectively capture both regional and global dependencies in the input data. The model has been designed to accommodate large token counts to model weather phenomena in different topologies at fine resolutions. Furthermore, it is trained with a mixed objective that combines the paradigms of masked reconstruction with forecasting. We test the model on a set of challenging downstream tasks namely: Autoregressive rollout forecasting, Downscaling, Gravity wave flux parameterization, and Extreme events estimation. The pretrained model with 2.3 billion parameters, along with the associated fine-tuning workflows, has been publicly released as an open-source contribution via Hugging Face.

  • 29 authors
·
Sep 20, 2024 4

WxC-Bench: A Novel Dataset for Weather and Climate Downstream Tasks

High-quality machine learning (ML)-ready datasets play a foundational role in developing new artificial intelligence (AI) models or fine-tuning existing models for scientific applications such as weather and climate analysis. Unfortunately, despite the growing development of new deep learning models for weather and climate, there is a scarcity of curated, pre-processed machine learning (ML)-ready datasets. Curating such high-quality datasets for developing new models is challenging particularly because the modality of the input data varies significantly for different downstream tasks addressing different atmospheric scales (spatial and temporal). Here we introduce WxC-Bench (Weather and Climate Bench), a multi-modal dataset designed to support the development of generalizable AI models for downstream use-cases in weather and climate research. WxC-Bench is designed as a dataset of datasets for developing ML-models for a complex weather and climate system, addressing selected downstream tasks as machine learning phenomenon. WxC-Bench encompasses several atmospheric processes from meso-beta (20 - 200 km) scale to synoptic scales (2500 km), such as aviation turbulence, hurricane intensity and track monitoring, weather analog search, gravity wave parameterization, and natural language report generation. We provide a comprehensive description of the dataset and also present a technical validation for baseline analysis. The dataset and code to prepare the ML-ready data have been made publicly available on Hugging Face -- https://huggingface.co/datasets/nasa-impact/WxC-Bench

  • 13 authors
·
Dec 3, 2024

Tides on Lava Worlds: Application to Close-in Exoplanets and the Early Earth-Moon System

Understanding the physics of planetary magma oceans has been the subject of growing efforts, in light of the increasing abundance of Solar system samples and extrasolar surveys. A rocky planet harboring such an ocean is likely to interact tidally with its host star, planetary companions, or satellites. To date, however, models of the tidal response and heat generation of magma oceans have been restricted to the framework of weakly viscous solids, ignoring the dynamical fluid behavior of the ocean beyond a critical melt fraction. Here we provide a handy analytical model that accommodates this phase transition, allowing for a physical estimation of the tidal response of lava worlds. We apply the model in two settings: The tidal history of the early Earth-Moon system in the aftermath of the giant impact; and the tidal interplay between short-period exoplanets and their host stars. For the former, we show that the fluid behavior of the Earth's molten surface drives efficient early Lunar recession to {sim} 25 Earth radii within 10^4{-} 10^5 years, in contrast with earlier predictions. For close-in exoplanets, we report on how their molten surfaces significantly change their spin-orbit dynamics, allowing them to evade spin-orbit resonances and accelerating their track towards tidal synchronization from a Gyr to Myr timescale. Moreover, we re-evaluate the energy budgets of detected close-in exoplanets, highlighting how the surface thermodynamics of these planets are likely controlled by enhanced, fluid-driven tidal heating, rather than vigorous insolation, and how this regime change substantially alters predictions for their surface temperatures.

  • 5 authors
·
Dec 10, 2024

Second Season QUIET Observations: Measurements of the CMB Polarization Power Spectrum at 95 GHz

The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) has observed the cosmic microwave background (CMB) at 43 and 95GHz. The 43-GHz results have been published in QUIET Collaboration et al. (2011), and here we report the measurement of CMB polarization power spectra using the 95-GHz data. This data set comprises 5337 hours of observations recorded by an array of 84 polarized coherent receivers with a total array sensitivity of 87 uK sqrt(s). Four low-foreground fields were observed, covering a total of ~1000 square degrees with an effective angular resolution of 12.8', allowing for constraints on primordial gravitational waves and high-signal-to-noise measurements of the E-modes across three acoustic peaks. The data reduction was performed using two independent analysis pipelines, one based on a pseudo-Cl (PCL) cross-correlation approach, and the other on a maximum-likelihood (ML) approach. All data selection criteria and filters were modified until a predefined set of null tests had been satisfied before inspecting any non-null power spectrum. The results derived by the two pipelines are in good agreement. We characterize the EE, EB and BB power spectra between l=25 and 975 and find that the EE spectrum is consistent with LCDM, while the BB power spectrum is consistent with zero. Based on these measurements, we constrain the tensor-to-scalar ratio to r=1.1+0.9-0.8 (r<2.8 at 95% C.L.) as derived by the ML pipeline, and r=1.2+0.9-0.8 (r<2.7 at 95% C.L.) as derived by the PCL pipeline. In one of the fields, we find a correlation with the dust component of the Planck Sky Model, though the corresponding excess power is small compared to statistical errors. Finally, we derive limits on all known systematic errors, and demonstrate that these correspond to a tensor-to-scalar ratio smaller than r=0.01, the lowest level yet reported in the literature.

  • 51 authors
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Jan 29, 2013

Analyzing black-hole ringdowns II: data conditioning

Time series data from observations of black hole ringdown gravitational waves are often analyzed in the time domain by using damped sinusoid models with acyclic boundary conditions. Data conditioning operations, including downsampling, filtering, and the choice of data segment duration, reduce the computational cost of such analyses and can improve numerical stability. Here we analyze simulated damped sinsuoid signals to illustrate how data conditioning operations, if not carefully applied, can undesirably alter the analysis' posterior distributions. We discuss how currently implemented downsampling and filtering methods, if applied too aggressively, can introduce systematic errors and skew tests of general relativity. These issues arise because current downsampling and filtering methods do not operate identically on the data and model. Alternative downsampling and filtering methods which identically operate on the data and model may be achievable, but we argue that the current operations can still be implemented safely. We also show that our preferred anti-alias filtering technique, which has an instantaneous frequency-domain response at its roll-off frequency, preserves the structure of posterior distributions better than other commonly used filters with transient frequency-domain responses. Lastly, we highlight that exceptionally long data segments may need to be analyzed in cases where thin lines in the noise power spectral density overlap with central signal frequencies. Our findings may be broadly applicable to any analysis of truncated time domain data with acyclic boundary conditions.

  • 3 authors
·
Oct 3, 2024

Bifurcations and Competing Coherent Structures in the Cubic-Quintic Ginzburg-Landau Equation I: Plane Wave (CW) Solutions

Singularity Theory is used to comprehensively investigate the bifurcations of the steady-states of the traveling wave ODEs of the cubic-quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE). These correspond to plane waves of the PDE. In addition to the most general situation, we also derive the degeneracy conditions on the eight coefficients of the CGLE under which the equation for the steady states assumes each of the possible quartic (the quartic fold and an unnamed form), cubic (the pitchfork and the winged cusp), and quadratic (four possible cases) normal forms for singularities of codimension up to three. Since the actual governing equations are employed, all results are globally valid, and not just of local applicability. In each case, the recognition problem for the unfolded singularity is treated. The transition varieties, i.e. the hysteresis, isola, and double limit curves are presented for each normal form. For both the most general case, as well as for various combinations of coefficients relevant to the particular cases, the bifurcations curves are mapped out in the various regions of parameter space delimited by these varieties. The multiplicities and interactions of the plane wave solutions are then comprehensively deduced from the bifurcation plots in each regime, and include features such as regimes of hysteresis among co-existing states, domains featuring more than one interval of hysteresis, and isola behavior featuring dynamics unrelated to the primary solution branch in limited ranges of parameter space.

  • 2 authors
·
Dec 18, 2012

Constraint closure and gravitational-wave content of shear-free cosmologies in metric f(R) gravity

We derive the consistency conditions governing the propagating content of linear shear-free perturbations of Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker cosmologies in metric f(R) gravity. The divergence of the shear-free constraint is shown to be the total momentum-conservation equation and therefore does not imply geodesic flow. Its projected time derivative instead supplies a nontrivial integrability condition. Scalar, vector, and tensor sectors must then be tested separately. Shear-freeness removes the independent transverse-traceless electric-magnetic Weyl pair, so no ordinary + or times tensor gravitational wave survives. The scalaron is not removed algebraically, but its four-variable harmonic system must remain in the time-dependent consistent subspace generated by the shear-free constraint and all of its time derivatives. For a geodesic shear-free congruence in the spatially flat expanding de Sitter patch, this excludes every nonzero fixed comoving scalar harmonic, including the healthy R+αR^2-2Λ model with α,Λ>0. Vector modes obey a curvature-dependent global eigenvalue condition whose right-hand side is negative for positive-density matter with f'>0 and 1+w>0; hence no nonzero vector harmonic survives on that branch. The familiar coasting R^3 example evades this sign obstruction only because it lies on an f'<0 branch. Thus tensor radiation is absent in the imposed shear-free sector, whereas scalar radiation is not excluded kinematically but remains a model- and background-dependent constraint-closure question.

  • 2 authors
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Sep 2

Dark Matter Subhalos and Higher Order Catastrophes in Gravitational Wave Lensing

Gravitational lensing is an invaluable probe of the nature of dark matter, and the structures it forms. Lensed gravitational waves in particular allow for unparalleled sensitivity to small scale structures within the lenses, due to the precise time resolution in combination with the continuous monitoring of the entire sky. In this work, we show two distinct ways of using strongly lensed gravitational waves to identify the presence of dark matter subhalos: {i)} through higher order caustics generating high relative magnification (mu_r > 2), short time delay image pairs that break the caustic universality relations of single dark matter halos, which occur for sim 1-10 percent of strongly lensed events in our cold dark matter models, and ii) through the presence of more than three highly magnified images, which occur for sim 0.01-1 percent of the same simulated events. We find that these results are highly sensitive to the concentrations of subhalos in our simulations, and more mildly to their number densities. The presence of low-mass subhalos increases the probability of observing wave-optics lensing in lensed gravitational waves, which is studied by solving the diffraction integral with the stationary phase approximation, as well as numerically. We also report distinct quantitative and qualitative differences in the distributions of relative magnifications and time delays for subhalo populations with increased number densities or concentrations. With the upcoming detection of strongly lensed events by ground- and space- based detectors, comparisons against these simulated distributions will provide insight into the nature of dark matter.

  • 5 authors
·
Oct 16, 2025

Objects in Generated Videos Are Slower Than They Appear: Models Suffer Sub-Earth Gravity and Don't Know Galileo's Principle...for now

Video generators are increasingly evaluated as potential world models, which requires them to encode and understand physical laws. We investigate their representation of a fundamental law: gravity. Out-of-the-box video generators consistently generate objects falling at an effectively slower acceleration. However, these physical tests are often confounded by ambiguous metric scale. We first investigate if observed physical errors are artifacts of these ambiguities (e.g., incorrect frame rate assumptions). We find that even temporal rescaling cannot correct the high-variance gravity artifacts. To rigorously isolate the underlying physical representation from these confounds, we introduce a unit-free, two-object protocol that tests the timing ratio t_1^2/t_2^2 = h_1/h_2, a relationship independent of g, focal length, and scale. This relative test reveals violations of Galileo's equivalence principle. We then demonstrate that this physical gap can be partially mitigated with targeted specialization. A lightweight low-rank adaptor fine-tuned on only 100 single-ball clips raises g_{eff} from 1.81,m/s^2 to 6.43,m/s^2 (reaching 65% of terrestrial gravity). This specialist adaptor also generalizes zero-shot to two-ball drops and inclined planes, offering initial evidence that specific physical laws can be corrected with minimal data.

  • 4 authors
·
Dec 1, 2025

European Pulsar Timing Array Limits On An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background

We present new limits on an isotropic stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) using a six pulsar dataset spanning 18 yr of observations from the 2015 European Pulsar Timing Array data release. Performing a Bayesian analysis, we fit simultaneously for the intrinsic noise parameters for each pulsar, along with common correlated signals including clock, and Solar System ephemeris errors, obtaining a robust 95% upper limit on the dimensionless strain amplitude A of the background of A<3.0times 10^{-15} at a reference frequency of 1yr^{-1} and a spectral index of 13/3, corresponding to a background from inspiralling super-massive black hole binaries, constraining the GW energy density to Omega_gw(f)h^2 < 1.1times10^{-9} at 2.8 nHz. We also present limits on the correlated power spectrum at a series of discrete frequencies, and show that our sensitivity to a fiducial isotropic GWB is highest at a frequency of sim 5times10^{-9}~Hz. Finally we discuss the implications of our analysis for the astrophysics of supermassive black hole binaries, and present 95% upper limits on the string tension, Gmu/c^2, characterising a background produced by a cosmic string network for a set of possible scenarios, and for a stochastic relic GWB. For a Nambu-Goto field theory cosmic string network, we set a limit Gmu/c^2<1.3times10^{-7}, identical to that set by the {\it Planck} Collaboration, when combining {\it Planck} and high-ell Cosmic Microwave Background data from other experiments. For a stochastic relic background we set a limit of Omega^relic_gw(f)h^2<1.2 times10^{-9}, a factor of 9 improvement over the most stringent limits previously set by a pulsar timing array.

  • 36 authors
·
Apr 14, 2015

Interpreting effective homogeneous rheologies through a local differential map with application to the Moon

Layered viscoelastic interiors control the frequency dependence of planetary tidal dissipation, but repeated layered Love-number calculations are expensive in long-term orbital and spin integrations. Equivalent homogeneous rheologies provide a cheaper representation of the same response, but their effective parameters do not by themselves identify the interior layers they represent. We develop a local interpretation of such parameters by differentiating the layered-to-homogeneous construction about a fixed-geometry baseline, perturbing only selected layer rigidities and viscosities. We use the pole-residue representation of the degree-two Love number to construct a physical-to-effective transfer matrix. We then use its singular values, resolution matrix, and mode-dominance matrix to determine which physical perturbations are visible in the Love-number response and how they appear in effective-rheology coordinates. Applied to a five-layer lunar model, the full degree-two response is sensitive to seven of eight solid-layer rheological parameters. The single near-null direction is the inner-core rigidity, consistent with shielding by the fluid outer core and with the weak dependence of Love numbers on core elastic structure. Over the LLR frequency interval, fewer physical directions are visible. To first order, the elastic spring, isolated dashpot, and two Voigt elements reproduce the nine-pole response over this interval. Finite perturbations confirm the tangent prediction to within a few percent, with the validity radius limited by a nearly degenerate pair of long-timescale modes.

  • 1 authors
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Sep 30

Two-dimensional structures in the quintic Ginzburg-Landau equation

By using ZEUS cluster at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University we perform extensive numerical simulations based on a two-dimensional Fourier spectral method Fourier spatial discretization and an explicit scheme for time differencing) to find the range of existence of the spatiotemporal solitons of the two-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation with cubic and quintic nonlinearities. We start from the parameters used by Akhmediev {\it et. al.} and slowly vary them one by one to determine the regimes where solitons exist as stable/unstable structures. We present eight classes of dissipative solitons from which six are known (stationary, pulsating, vortex spinning, filament, exploding, creeping) and two are novel (creeping-vortex propellers and spinning "bean-shaped" solitons). By running lengthy simulations for the different parameters of the equation, we find ranges of existence of stable structures (stationary, pulsating, circular vortex spinning, organized exploding), and unstable structures (elliptic vortex spinning that leads to filament, disorganized exploding, creeping). Moreover, by varying even the two initial conditions together with vorticity, we find a richer behavior in the form of creeping-vortex propellers, and spinning "bean-shaped" solitons. Each class differentiates from the other by distinctive features of their energy evolution, shape of initial conditions, as well as domain of existence of parameters.

  • 3 authors
·
Nov 11, 2014