Strong Gravity

Implications of recently well-measured neutron star masses, particularly near and above 2 solar masses, for the equation of state (EOS) of neutron star matter will be highlighted.  Model independent upper limits to thermodynamic properties in neutron stars, which only depend on the neutron star maximum mass, established from causality considerations will be presented. The need for non-perturbative treatments of quark matter in neutron stars is revealed through studies of self-bound quark matter stars, and of nucleon-quark hybrid stars.  The extent to which several well-measured masses and radii of individual neutron stars can establish a model-independent EOS through an inversion of the stellar structure equations will be briefly discussed.

I describe recent work with with Stefan Hollands that establishes a new criterion for the dynamical stability of black holes in $D \geq 4$ spacetime dimensions in general relativity with respect to axisymmetric perturbations: Dynamic stability is equivalent to the positivity of the canonical energy, $\mathcal E$, on a subspace of linearized solutions that have vanishing linearized ADM mass, momentum, and angular momentum at infinity and satisfy certain gauge conditions at the horizon.  We further show that $\mathcal E$ is related to the second order variations of mass, angular momentum, and horizon area by $\mathcal E = \delta^2 M - \sum_i \Omega_i \delta^2 J_i - (\kappa/8\pi) \delta^2 A$, thereby establishing a close connection between dynamic stability and thermodynamic stability.

Thermodynamic instability of a family of black holes need not imply dynamic instability because the perturbations towards other members of the family will not, in general, have vanishing linearized ADM mass and/or angular momentum. However, we prove that all black branes corresponding to
thermodynmically unstable black holes are dynamically unstable, as conjectured by Gubser and Mitra. We also prove that positivity of $\mathcal E$ is equivalent to the satisfaction of a ``local Penrose inequality,'' thus showing that satisfaction of this local Penrose inequality is necessary and sufficient for dynamical stability.

Spins play a major role in the strong-field dynamics of
black-hole binaries and their gravitational-wave emission. By detecting spin
effects in the waveforms, existing and future gravitational-wave detectors
therefore provide a natural way to test gravity in strong-field, highly
dynamical regimes.

In the first part of my talk, I will show that the
inclusion of the spins in the gravitational templates for future space-based
detectors will permit testing scenarios for the formation and cosmological
evolution of supermassive black holes, and possibly shed light on models of
galaxy formation. In the second part, I will show that the effective-one-body
(EOB) model provides an efficient way to account for spin effects in both the
dynamics and waveforms, by combining information from post-Newtonian theory,
the self-force formalism, and numerical-relativity simulations.

We discuss well-posed initial-boundary value formulations
in general relativity. These formulations allow us to construct solutions of
Einstein's field equations inside a cylindrical region, given suitable initial
and boundary data. We analyze the restrictions on the boundary data that result
from the requirement of constraint propagation and the minimization of spurious
reflections, and choosing harmonic coordinates we show how to cast the problem
into well-posed form. Then, we consider the particular case where the boundary
represents null infinity of an asymptotically flat spacetime. Here, the rôle of
the boundary conditions is to provide adequate regularity and gauge conditions
at infinity.

As an application of our setup we mention ongoing work on
the computation of quasi-stationary scalar field configurations on a
non-rotating supermassive black hole background.

In this talk I will focus on two topics concerning compact binaries that involve a neutron star companion: a) the fate of and observable signatures from merging white dwarf-neutron star (WDNS) binaries, and b) electromagnetic signals from black hole - neutron star (BHNS) binaries.WDNS systems - the neglected child among compact binaries - generate detectable gravitational waves (GWs) and may also generate observable electromagnetic (EM) signals. One of the most fascinating aspects about these systems is that they are known to exist, but the final fate of massive, merged WDNSs remnants is currently work in progress. Determining the fate of WDNS remnants will be important for interpreting observations from future transient surveys. I will review recent work that provides insight into the physics of WDNSs remnants. Black hole - neutron star systems are among the most promising sources for gravitational waves, and at the same time also possible sources of detectable precursor and aftermath EM signals. I will present recent the results from general relativistic force-free simulations of binary BHNSs and a type of EM precursor signatures expected from these systems.

In the last few years several interesting phenomena associated to the interaction between massive black holes and fundamental bosonic fields have been discovered. I present a selection of them, including superradiance instabilities of spin-0, spin-1 and spin-2 fields, floating orbits in extreme-mass ratio inspirals and black-hole spontaneous scalarization. The theoretical potential of these effects
as almost-model-independent smoking guns for exotic particles and modified gravity, as well as their limitations in realistic astrophysical scenarios, are discussed.

The last few years have seen new opportunities for constraining the physics of neutron star interiors. I will first discuss the current state of neutron star radius measurements and then go on to discuss thermal tomography as a probe of the nuclear, magnetic, and transport properties of neutron star crusts. In each case, I will emphasize the astrophysics that must be understood to make reliable inferences about the properties of dense matter from observations of neutron stars.

In the past few years, optical cooling and manipulating of macroscopic objects, such as micro-mirrors and cantilevers has developed into an active field of research. In mechanical systems, the oscillator is attached to its suspension, a thermal contact that limits the motion isolation. On the other hand, when these small objects are levitated using the radiation pressure force of lasers, the excellent thermal isolation even at room temperatures helps produce very sensitive force detectors, and eventually quantum transducers for quantum computation purposes. These new techniques may have a variety of applications for fundamental physics such as short distance tests of gravity and gravitational wave detection at high frequencies. In addition, there are several proposals suggesting that optically levitated dielectrics can be cooled to the ground state of the center of mass motion, opening the exciting possibility of creating macroscopic matter-wave interferometers.

The bimodality of gamma-ray burst (GRB) durations points to distinct progenitor classes for the long- and short-duration GRBs. While the progenitors of long-duration GRBs are now known to be massive stars, the progenitors of short-duration GRBs remain unidentified. In this talk I will discuss the discovery of short GRB afterglow and their host galaxies, detailed studies of their environments from parsec to galactic scales, and studies of their energetics and beaming. Taken together, these observations point to the coalescence of NS-NS/NS-BH binaries as the most likely progenitors. With the upcoming Advanced LIGO/VIRGO gravitational wave detectors it is therefore possible that short GRBs will be the first detected sources, and I will discuss various approaches to making this connection between gravitational wave and electromagnetic sources.

The relativistic wind of pulsars consists of toroidal stripes of opposite magnetic field polarity, separated by current sheets of hot plasma. By means of 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate particle acceleration and magnetic field dissipation at the termination shock of a striped pulsar wind. At the shock, the flow compresses and the alternating fields annihilate by driven magnetic reconnection. Irrespective of the stripe wavelength "lambda" or the wind magnetization "sigma" (in the regime sigma>>1 of magnetically-dominated flows), shock-driven reconnection transfers all the magnetic energy of the alternating fields to the particles. As the value of lambda/(r_L*sigma) increases (here, r_L is the relativistic Larmor radius in the wind), the post-shock spectrum passes from a thermal Maxwellian to a flat power-law tail with slope around -1.5, populated by particles accelerated by the reconnection electric field. The limit lambda/(r_L*sigma)>>1 is realized in relativistic jets, where kink instabilities may seed the conditions for magnetic reconnection. Here, we find that the particle spectrum in the current sheet approaches a flat power-law tail with slope between -1.5 and -2, regardless of the conditions in the jet. The spectrum extends to higher energies for larger magnetizations or colder plasma temperatures, everything else being fixed. Our results place important constraints on the emission models of Pulsar Wind Nebulae and magnetically-dominated astrophysical jets.