GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence

Gravitational Waves Induced by Non-Gaussian Scalar Perturbations

We study gravitational waves (GWs) induced by non-Gaussian curvature perturbations. We calculate the density parameter per logarithmic frequency interval, Ω_{GW}(k), given that the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation P_{R}(k) has a narrow peak at some small scale k_{*}, with a local-type non-Gaussianity, and constrain the nonlinear parameter f_{NL} with the future LISA sensitivity curve as well as with constraints from the abundance of the primordial black holes (PBHs). We find that the non-Gaussian contribution to Ω_{GW} increases as k^{3}, peaks at k/k_{*}=4/sqrt[3], and has a sharp cutoff at k=4k_{*}. The non-Gaussian part can exceed the Gaussian part if P_{R}(k)f_{NL}^{2}≳1. If both a slope Ω_{GW}(k)∝k^{β} with β∼3 and the multiple-peak structure around a cutoff are observed, it can be recognized as a smoking gun of the primordial non-Gaussianity. We also find that if PBHs with masses of 10^{20} to 10^{22}  g are identified as cold dark matter of the Universe, the corresponding GWs must be detectable by LISA-like detectors, irrespective of the value of P_{R} or f_{NL}.

Upgrading Plan Towards Multi-messenger Observation with LHAASO

LHAASO is planning to enhance its sensitivity at energies around 100 GeV by utilize MCP staffed 20” PMT in the Water Cherekove Detector Array. The effective area for gamma ray detection will reach to 1800 m2 and differential sensitivity to 0.2 CU at 50 GeV. It will be the very useful survey detection for transient phenomena at 50 GeV in the northern sky. LHAASO is expected to play an important role in the multimessenger observation with the upgrading.

The Lanczos Equation on Light-Like Hypersurfaces in a Cosmologically Viable Class of Kinetic Gravity Braiding Theories

We discuss junction conditions across null hypersurfaces in a class of scalar–tensor gravity theories (i) with second-order dynamics, (ii) obeying the recent constraints imposed by gravitational wave propagation, and (iii) allowing for a cosmologically viable evolution. These requirements select kinetic gravity braiding models with linear kinetic term dependence and scalar field-dependent coupling to curvature. We explore a pseudo-orthonormal tetrad and its allowed gauge fixing with one null vector standing as the normal and the other being transversal to the hypersurface. We derive a generalization of the Lanczos equation in a 2 + 1 decomposed form, relating the energy density, current, and isotropic pressure of a distributional source to the jumps in the transverse curvature and transverse derivative of the scalar. Additionally, we discuss a scalar junction condition and its implications for the distributional source.

Gravitational Waves from Mirror World

In this paper we consider the properties of the 10 confirmed by the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Collaboration gravitational wave signals from the black hole mergers. We want to explain non-observation of electromagnetic counterpart and higher then expected merging rates of these events, assuming the existence of their sources in the hidden mirror universe. Mirror matter, which interacts with our world only through gravity, is a candidate of dark matter and its density can exceed ordinary matter density five times. Since mirror world is considered to be colder, star formation there started earlier and mirror black holes had more time to pick up the mass and to create more binary systems within the LIGO reachable zone. In total, we estimate factor of 15 amplification of black holes merging rate in mirror world with respect to our world, which is consistent with the LIGO observations.

Anisotropies in the Astrophysical Gravitational-Wave Background: The Impact of Black Hole Distributions

We use population inference to explore the impact that uncertainties in the distribution of binary black holes (BBH) have on the astrophysical gravitational-wave background (AGWB). Our results show that the AGWB monopole is sensitive to the nature of the BBH population (particularly the local merger rate), while the anisotropic C_{ℓ} spectrum is only modified to within a few percent, at a level which is insignificant compared to other sources of uncertainty (such as cosmic variance). This is very promising news for future observational studies of the AGWB, as it shows that (i) the monopole can be used as a new probe of the population of compact objects throughout cosmic history, complementary to direct observations by LIGO and Virgo and (ii) we are able to make surprisingly robust predictions for the C_{ℓ} spectrum, even with only very approximate knowledge of the black hole population. As a result, the AGWB anisotropies have enormous potential as a new probe of the large-scale structure of the Universe, and of late-Universe cosmology in general.

Picometer-Stable Hexagonal Optical Bench to Verify LISA Phase Extraction Linearity and Precision

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and its metrology chain have to fulfill stringent performance requirements to enable the space-based detection of gravitational waves. This implies the necessity of performance verification methods. In particular, the extraction of the interferometric phase, implemented by a phasemeter, needs to be probed for linearity and phase noise contributions. This Letter reports on a hexagonal quasimonolithic optical bench implementing a three-signal test for this purpose. Its characterization as sufficiently stable down to picometer levels is presented as well as its usage for a benchmark phasemeter performance measurement under LISA conditions. These results make it a candidate for the core of a LISA metrology verification facility.

Gravitational-Wave Background Sky Maps from Advanced LIGO O1 Data

We integrate the publicly available O1 LIGO time-domain data to obtain maximum-likelihood constraints on the gravitational-wave background (GWB) arising from stochastic, persistent signals. Our method produces sky maps of the strain intensity I as a function of direction on the sky at a reference frequency f_{0}. The data are integrated assuming a set of fixed power-law spectra for the signal. The maps provide upper limits on the amplitude of the GWB density Ω_{GW}(f_{0}) and any anisotropy around the background. We find 95% confidence upper limits of Ω_{GW}<4.8×10^{-7} at f_{0}=50  Hz with similar constraints on a dipole modulation for the inspiral-dominated stochastic background case.

Can We Probe Planckian Corrections at the Horizon Scale with Gravitational Waves?

Future detectors can be used as gravitational microscopes to probe the horizon structure of merging black holes with gravitational waves. But, can this microscope probe the quantum regime? We study this interesting question and find that (i) the error in the distance resolution is exponentially sensitive to errors in the Love number, (ii) the uncertainty principle of quantum gravity forces a fundamental resolution limit, and (iii) conclusions about the structure of spacetime at small distances rely on assumptions about the properties of the (unknown) compact objects considered.

Nd:YVO4 high-power master oscillator power amplifier laser system for second-generation gravitational wave detectors

Ultrastable high-power laser systems are essential components of the long baseline interferometers that detected the first gravitational waves from merging black holes and neutron stars. One way to further increase the sensitivity of current generation gravitational wave detectors (GWDs) is to increase the laser power injected into the interferometers. In this Letter, we describe and characterize a 72 W and a 114 W linearly polarized, single-frequency laser system at a wavelength of 1064 nm, each based on single-pass Nd:YVO₄ power amplifiers. Both systems have low power and frequency noise and very high spatial purity with less than 10.7% and 2.9% higher order mode content, respectively. We demonstrate the simple integration of these amplifiers into the laser stabilization environment of operating GWDs and show stable low-noise operation of one of the amplifier systems in such an environment for more than 45 days.

Probing primordial gravitational waves: Ali CMB Polarization Telescope

In this paper, we will give a general introduction to the Ali CMB Polarization Telescope (AliCPT) project, which is a Sino–US joint project led by the Institute of High Energy Physics and involves many different institutes in China. It is the first ground-based Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) polarization experiment in China and an integral part of China's Gravitational-wave Program. The main scientific goal of the AliCPT project is to probe the primordial gravitational waves (PGWs) originating from the very early Universe. The AliCPT project includes two stages. The first stage, referred to as AliCPT-1, is to build a telescope in the Ali region of Tibet at an altitude of 5250 meters. Once completed, it will be the highest ground-based CMB observatory in the world and will open a new window for probing PGWs in the northern hemisphere. The AliCPT-1 telescope is designed to have about 7000 transition-edge sensor detectors at 95 GHz and 150 GHz. The second stage is to have a more sensitive telescope (AliCPT-2) with more than 20 000 detectors. Our simulations show that AliCPT will improve the current constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r by one order of magnitude with three years' observation. Besides the PGWs, AliCPT will also enable a precise measurement of the CMB rotation angle and provide a precise test of the CPT symmetry. We show that three years' observation will improve the current limit by two orders of magnitude.

Numerical relativity of compact binaries in the 21st century

We review the dramatic progress in the simulations of compact objects and compact-object binaries that has taken place in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. This includes simulations of the inspirals and violent mergers of binaries containing black holes and neutron stars, as well as simulations of black-hole formation through failed supernovae and high-mass neutron star-neutron star mergers. Modeling such events requires numerical integration of the field equations of general relativity in three spatial dimensions, coupled, in the case of neutron-star containing binaries, with increasingly sophisticated treatment of fluids, electromagnetic fields, and neutrino radiation. However, it was not until 2005 that accurate long-term evolutions of binaries containing black holes were even possible (Pretorius 2005 Phys. Rev. Lett. 95 121101, Campanelli et al 2006 Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 111101, Baker et al 2006 Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 111102). Since then, there has been an explosion of new results and insights into the physics of strongly-gravitating system. Particular emphasis has been placed on understanding the gravitational wave and electromagnetic signatures from these extreme events. And with the recent dramatic discoveries of gravitational waves from merging black holes by the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory and Virgo, and the subsequent discovery of both electromagnetic and gravitational wave signals from a merging neutron star-neutron star binary, numerical relativity became an indispensable tool for the new field of multimessenger astronomy.

Squeezed vacuum states of light for gravitational wave detectors

A century after Einstein's formulation of general relativity, the detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first direct detection of gravitational waves. This historic achievement was the culmination of a world-wide effort and decades of instrument research. While sufficient for this monumental discovery, the current generation of gravitational-wave detectors represent the least sensitive devices necessary for the task; improved detectors will be required to fully exploit this new window on the Universe. In this paper, we review the application of squeezed vacuum states of light to gravitational-wave detectors as a way to reduce quantum noise, which currently limits their performance in much of the detection band.

Stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds

A stochastic background of gravitational waves could be created by the superposition of a large number of independent sources. The physical processes occurring at the earliest moments of the universe certainly created a stochastic background that exists, at some level, today. This is analogous to the cosmic microwave background, which is an electromagnetic record of the early universe. The recent observations of gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors imply that there is also a stochastic background that has been created by binary black hole and binary neutron star mergers over the history of the universe. Whether the stochastic background is observed directly, or upper limits placed on it in specific frequency bands, important astrophysical and cosmological statements about it can be made. This review will summarize the current state of research of the stochastic background, from the sources of these gravitational waves to the current methods used to observe them.

Cosmoparticle physics of dark matter

The lack of confirmation for the existence of supersymmetric particles and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) appeals to extension of the field of studies of the physical nature of dark matter, involving nonsupersymmetric and non-WIMP solutions. We briefly discuss some examples of such candidates in their relationship with extension of particle symmetry and pattern of symmetry breaking. We specify in the example of axion-like particles nontrivial features of cosmological reflection of the structure and pattern of Peccei-Quinn-like symmetry breaking. The puzzles of direct and indiect dark matter searches can find solution in the approach of composite dark matter. The advantages and open problems of this approach are specified. We note that detailed analysis of cosmological consequences of any extension of particle model that provides candidates for dark matter inevitably leads to nonstandard features in the corresponding cosmological scenario. It makes possible to use methods of cosmoparticle physics to study physical nature of the dark matter in the combination of its physical, astrophysical and cosmological signatures.

Search for Neutrinos in Super-Kamiokande Associated with Gravitational Wave Events

We report the results from a search in Super-Kamiokande for neutrino signals coincident with gravitational-wave events using a neutrino energy range from 3.5 MeV–100 PeV. We searched for coincident neutrino events within a time window of ± 500 s around the gravitational-wave detection time. In this work, we report the number of events within the search-window and the 90 % confidence level upper limits on the neutrino fluence for each gravitational-wave event.

Gravitational Waves in Massive Gravity Theories: Waveforms, Fluxes, and Constraints from Extreme-Mass-Ratio Mergers

Is the graviton massless? This problem was addressed in the literature at a phenomenological level, using modified dispersion relations for gravitational waves, in linearized calculations around flat space. Here, we perform a detailed analysis of the gravitational waveform produced when a small particle plunges or inspirals into a large nonspinning black hole. Our results should presumably also describe the gravitational collapse to black holes and explosive events such as supernovae. In the context of a theory with massive gravitons and screening, merging objects up to 1 Gpc away or collapsing stars in the nearby galaxy may be used to constrain the mass of the graviton to be smaller than ∼10^{-23}  eV, with low-frequency detectors. Our results suggest that the absence of dipolar gravitational waves from black hole binaries may be used to rule out entirely such theories.

Search for Subsolar-Mass Ultracompact Binaries in Advanced LIGO's First Observing Run

We present the first Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo search for ultracompact binary systems with component masses between 0.2  M_{⊙}-1.0  M_{⊙} using data taken between September 12, 2015 and January 19, 2016. We find no viable gravitational wave candidates. Our null result constrains the coalescence rate of monochromatic (delta function) distributions of nonspinning (0.2  M_{⊙}, 0.2  M_{⊙}) ultracompact binaries to be less than 1.0×10^{6}  Gpc^{-3}  yr^{-1} and the coalescence rate of a similar distribution of (1.0  M_{⊙}, 1.0  M_{⊙}) ultracompact binaries to be less than 1.9×10^{4}  Gpc^{-3}  yr^{-1} (at 90% confidence). Neither black holes nor neutron stars are expected to form below ∼1  M_{⊙} through conventional stellar evolution, though it has been proposed that similarly low mass black holes could be formed primordially through density fluctuations in the early Universe and contribute to the dark matter density. The interpretation of our constraints in the primordial black hole dark matter paradigm is highly model dependent; however, under a particular primordial black hole binary formation scenario we constrain monochromatic primordial black hole populations of 0.2  M_{⊙} to be less than 33% of the total dark matter density and monochromatic populations of 1.0  M_{⊙} to be less than 5% of the dark matter density. The latter strengthens the presently placed bounds from microlensing surveys of massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) provided by the MACHO and EROS Collaborations.

Angular instability in high optical power suspended cavities

Advanced gravitational wave detectors use suspended test masses to form optical resonant cavities for enhancing the detector sensitivity. These cavities store hundreds of kilowatts of coherent light and even higher optical power for future detectors. With such high optical power, the radiation pressure effect inside the cavity creates a sufficiently strong coupling between test masses whose dynamics are significantly altered. The dynamics of two independent nearly free masses become a coupled mechanical resonator system. The transfer function of the local control system used for controlling the test masses is modified by the radiation pressure effect. The changes in the transfer function of the local control systems can result in a new type of angular instability which occurs at only 1.3% of the Sidles-Sigg instability threshold power. We report the experimental results on a 74 m suspended cavity with a few kilowatts of circulating power, for which the power to mass ratio is comparable to the current Advanced LIGO. The radiation pressure effect on the test masses behaves like an additional optical feedback with respect to the local angular control, potentially making the mirror control system unstable. When the local angular control system is optimised for maximum stability margin, the instability threshold power increases from 4 kW to 29 kW. The system behaviour is consistent with our simulation, and the power dependent evolution of both the cavity soft and hard mode is observed. We show that this phenomenon is likely to significantly affect the proposed gravitational wave detectors that require very high optical power.

Implications of Dedicated Seismometer Measurements on Newtonian-Noise Cancellation for Advanced LIGO

Newtonian gravitational noise from seismic fields will become a limiting noise source at low frequency for second-generation, gravitational-wave detectors. It is planned to use seismic sensors surrounding the detectors' test masses to coherently subtract Newtonian noise using Wiener filters derived from the correlations between the sensors and detector data. In this Letter, we use data from a seismometer array deployed at the corner station of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) Hanford detector combined with a tiltmeter for a detailed characterization of the seismic field and to predict achievable Newtonian-noise subtraction levels. As was shown previously, cancellation of the tiltmeter signal using seismometer data serves as the best available proxy of Newtonian-noise cancellation. According to our results, a relatively small number of seismometers is likely sufficient to perform the noise cancellation due to an almost ideal two-point spatial correlation of seismic surface displacement at the corner station, or alternatively, a tiltmeter deployed under each of the two test masses of the corner station at Hanford will be able to efficiently cancel Newtonian noise. Furthermore, we show that the ground tilt to differential arm-length coupling observed during LIGO's second science run is consistent with gravitational coupling.

Amorphous Silicon with Extremely Low Absorption: Beating Thermal Noise in Gravitational Astronomy

Amorphous silicon has ideal properties for many applications in fundamental research and industry. However, the optical absorption is often unacceptably high, particularly for gravitational-wave detection. We report a novel ion-beam deposition method for fabricating amorphous silicon with unprecedentedly low unpaired electron-spin density and optical absorption, the spin limit on absorption being surpassed for the first time. At low unpaired electron density, the absorption is no longer correlated with electron spins, but with the electronic mobility gap. Compared to standard ion-beam deposition, the absorption at 1550 nm is lower by a factor of ≈100. This breakthrough shows that amorphous silicon could be exploited as an extreme performance optical coating in near-infrared applications, and it represents an important proof of concept for future gravitational-wave detectors.

Tracking Black Hole Kicks from Gravitational-Wave Observations

Coalescing binary black holes emit anisotropic gravitational radiation. This causes a net emission of linear momentum that produces a gradual acceleration of the source. As a result, the final remnant black hole acquires a characteristic velocity known as recoil velocity or gravitational kick. The symmetries of gravitational wave emission are reflected in the interactions of the gravitational wave modes emitted by the binary. In this Letter, we make use of the rich information encoded in the higher-order modes of the gravitational wave emission to infer the component of the kick along the line of sight (or radial kick). We do this by performing parameter inference on simulated signals given by numerical relativity waveforms for nonspinning binaries using numerical relativity templates of aligned-spin (nonprecessing) binary black holes. We find that for suitable sources, namely those with mass ratio q≥2 and total mass M∼100  M_{⊙}, and for modest radial kicks of 120  km/s, the 90% credible intervals of our posterior probability distributions can exclude a zero kick at a signal-to-noise ratio of 15, using a single Advanced LIGO detector working at its early sensitivity. The measurement of a nonzero radial kick component would provide the first observational signature of net transport of linear momentum by gravitational waves away from their source.

Magnetic coupling to the advanced Virgo payloads and its impact on the low frequency sensitivity

We study the electromagnetic coupling of the Advanced Virgo (AdV) input mirror payload in response to a slowly time-varying magnetic field. As the problem is not amenable to analytical solution, we employ and validate a finite element (FE) analysis approach. The FE model is built to represent as faithfully as possible the real object, and it has been validated by comparison with experimental measurements. The intent is to estimate the induced currents and the magnetic field in the neighbourhood of the payload. The procedure found 21 equivalent electrical configurations that are compatible with the measurements. These have been used to compute the magnetic noise contribution to the total AdV strain noise. At the current stage of development, AdV seems to be unaffected by magnetic noise, but we foresee a non-negligible coupling once AdV reaches the design sensitivity.