14167939
Detecting Outer Planets in Edge-on Orbits: Combining Radial Velocity and Astrometric Techniques
The astrometric and radial velocity techniques of extrasolar planet detection attempt to detect the periodic reflex motion of the parent star by extracting this periodic signal from a time-sampled set of observations. The extraction is generally accomplished using periodogram analysis or the functionally equivalent technique of least-squares fitting of sinusoids. In this paper, we use a frequentist approach to examine the sensitivity of the least-squares technique when applied to a combination of radial velocity and astrometric observations. We derive an analytical expression for the sensitivity and show that the combined approach yields significantly better sensitivity than either technique on its own. We discuss the ramifications of this result to upcoming astrometric surveys with the Full-Sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer, the Keck Interferometer, and the Space Interferometry Mission.
119368882
Optical Detection of Two Intermediate-Mass Binary Pulsar Companions
We report the detection of probable optical counterparts for two intermediate-mass binary pulsar (IMBP) systems, PSR J1528-3146 and PSR J1757-5322. Recent radio pulsar surveys have uncovered a handful of these systems with putative massive white dwarf companions, thought to have an evolutionary history different from that of the more numerous class of low-mass binary pulsars with He white dwarf companions. The study of IMBP companions via optical observations offers us several new diagnostics: the evolution of main-sequence stars near the white dwarf-neutron star boundary, the physics of white dwarfs close to the Chandrasekhar limit, and insights into the recycling process by which old pulsars are spun up to high rotation frequencies. We were unsuccessful in our attempt to detect optical counterparts of PSR J1141-6545, PSR J1157-5112, PSR J1435-6100, and PSR J1454-5846.
199669317
The afterglow, redshift, and extreme energetics of the gamma-ray burst 990123: Evidence for beaming?
6132403
Millimeter Observations of GRB 030329: Continued Evidence for a Two-Component Jet
We present the results of a dedicated campaign on the afterglow of GRB 030329 with the millimeter interferometers of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) and the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA), and with the MAMBO-2 bolometer array on the IRAM 30 m telescope. These observations allow us to trace the full evolution of the afterglow of GRB 030329 at frequencies of 100 and 250 GHz for the first time. The millimeter light curves exhibit two main features: a bright, constant flux density portion and a steep power-law decline. The absence of bright, short-lived millimeter emission is used to show that the GRB central engine was not actively injecting energy well after the burst. The millimeter data support a model, advocated by Berger et al., of a two-component jetlike outflow in which a narrow-angle jet is responsible for the high-energy emission and early optical afterglow, and a wide-angle jet carrying most of the energy is powering the radio and late optical afterglow emission.
10828298
SENSITIVE SEARCH FOR RADIO VARIABLES AND TRANSIENTS IN THE EXTENDED CHANDRA DEEP FIELD SOUTH
We report on an analysis of the Extended Chandra Deep Field South (E-CDFS) region using archival data from the Very Large Array, with the goal of studying radio variability and transients at the sub-milliJansky level. The 49 epochs of E-CDFS observations at 1.4 GHz sample timescales from 1 day to 3 months. We find that only a fraction (1%) of unresolved radio sources above 40 μJy are variable at the 4σ level. There is no evidence that the fractional variability changes along with the known transition of radio-source populations below 1 mJy. Optical identifications of the sources show that the variable radio emission is associated with the central regions of an active galactic nucleus or a star-forming galaxy. After a detailed comparison of the efficacy of various source-finding algorithms, we use the best to carry out a transient search. No transients were found. This implies that the areal density of transients with peak flux density greater than 0.21 mJy is less than 0.37 deg^(–2) (at a confidence level of 95%). This result is approximately an order of magnitude below the transient rate measured at 5 GHz by Bower et al. but it is consistent with more recent upper limits from Frail et al. Our findings suggest that the radio sky at 1.4 GHz is relatively quiet. For multi-wavelength transient searches, such as the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves, this frequency may be optimal for reducing the high background of false positives.
118902706
A search for the radio counterpart to the March 1, 1994 gamma-ray burst
We report on the results of a search for the radio counterpart to the bright gamma-ray burst of March 1, 1994. Using the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory Synthesis Telescope sensitive, wide-field radio images at 1.4 GHz and 0.4 GHz were made of a region around GRB940301. A total of 15 separate radio images were obtained at each frequency, sampling a near-continuous range of post-burst timescales between 3 and 15 days, as well as 26, 47 and 99 days. We place an upper limit of 3.5 mJy on a fading/flaring radio counterpart at 1.4 GHz and 55 mJy at 0.4 GHz. Previous searches have concentrated on searching for a counterpart at only one epoch following the outburst. In contrast, the present search maintains high sensitivity over two decades of post-burst time durations. Time-variable radio emission after the initial gamma-ray burst is a prediction of all fireball models, currently the most popular model for gamma-ray bursts. Our observations allow us to put significant constraints on the fireball parameters for cosmological models of gamma-ray bursts.
18639894
Nonconservation of energy-momentum tensor in classical Liouville theory
where Ah is the area of the horizon. In this context, the classical Liouville theory [4] has gained considerable importance owing to the work of Solodukhin [5]. He showed that the computation of the black hole entropy can be carried out at the classical level. He observed that the 4-dimensional Einstein-Hilbert action can be reduced to an effective 2-dimensional theory, with fixed boundary conditions on the horizon, by performing a dimensional reduction with the ansatz of spherical symmetry and writing the metric in conformally flat form. This action can then be transformed to a form similar to the classical Liouville theory which in turn admits a Virasoro algebra near the horizon with a nontrivial classical central charge. The computation of this central charge then allows to determine the black hole entropy from the Cardy formula [6]. This approach was then used to study thermodynamic properties of black hole with a bifurcate killing horizon [7]. However, it is a well known fact from general field theoretic considerations [8, 9] that a central charge is related to diffeomorphism anomaly manifested as a nonconservation of the energy-momentum tensor. This relation is discussed from quantum considerations. The central charge and the diffeomorphism anomaly reveal different manifestations of the same phenomenon – a breakdown of classical symmetry upon the process of quantisation. Since the central charge is obtained [5, 7] in a classical Liouville theory, a natural question that arises is whether, in such a theory, there is a diffeomorphism anomaly. The principal objective of this paper is to show that this is indeed true. In this paper, we show explicitly that if we consider terms in the expansion of the metric, near the horizon, beyond leading order, then it leads to a diffeomorphism anomaly which is compatible with the fact that the theory has a nontrivial classical central charge. The computation of this anomaly has in fact been done to all orders. To begin with, we consider a four-dimensional spherically symmetric metric of the form
119219712
Non-conformal hydrodynamics in Einstein-dilaton theory
A bstractIn the Einestein-dilaton theory with a Liouville potential parameterized by η, we find a Schwarzschild-type black hole solution. This black hole solution, whose asymptotic geometry is described by the warped metric, is thermodynamically stable only for 0 ≤ η < 2. Applying the gauge/gravity duality, we find that the dual gauge theory represents a non-conformal thermal system with the equation of state depending on η. After turning on the bulk vector fluctuations with and without a dilaton coupling, we calculate the charge diffusion constant, which indicates that the life time of the quasi normal mode decreases with η. Interestingly, the vector fluctuation with the dilaton coupling shows that the DC conductivity increases with temperature, a feature commonly found in electrolytes.
15557731
Hawking radiation in GHS and non-extremal D1-D5 blackhole via covariant anomalies
We apply the method of Banerjee and Kulkarni (arXiv:0707.2449, [hep-th]) to provide a derivation of Hawking radiation from the GHS (stringy) blackhole which falls in the class of the most general spherically symmetric blackholes ( √−g 6= 1) and also the non-extremal D1−D5 blackhole using only covariant gravitational anomalies.
118380637
Conserved quantities and Virasoro algebra in new massive gravity
A bstractUsing the off-shell Noether current and potential we compute the entropy for the AdS black holes in new massive gravity. For the non-extremal BTZ black holes by implementing the so-called stretched horizon approach we reproduce the correct expression for the horizon entropy. For the extremal case, we adopt standard formalism in the AdS/CFT correspondence and reproduce the corresponding entropy by computing the central extension term on the asymptotic boundary of the near horizon geometry. We explicitly show the invariance of the angular momentum along the radial direction for extremal as well as non-extremal BTZ black holes in our model. Furthermore, we extend this invariance for the black holes in new massive gravity coupled with a scalar field, which correspond to the holographic renormalization group flow trajectory of the dual field theory. This provides another realization for the holographic c-theorem.
118387184
Higher order WKB corrections to black hole entropy in brick wall formalism
We calculate the statistical entropy of a quantum field with an arbitrary spin propagating on the spherical symmetric black hole background by using the brick wall formalism at higher orders in the WKB approximation. For general spins, we find that the correction to the standard Bekenstein–Hawking entropy depends logarithmically on the area of the horizon. Furthermore, we apply this analysis to the Schwarzschild and Schwarzschild–AdS(dS) black holes and discuss our results.