General Relativity & Quantum Cosmology

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.

Gravitational radiation promises to teach us many new things about the universe and the world around us, but all attempts to observe gravitational waves have so far been unsuccessful.  I will discuss some of the challenges we need to overcome in our quest to detect this elusive form of energy, and how tackling these challenges is opening new windows on fundamental physics.  I will show, specifically, how novel data analysis strategies have been used to combat detector noise in searches for gravitational waves from cosmic strings, and how the search for the signatures of neutron star collisions has created new techniques for modelling the mergers of compact objects.

Effective field theory techniques allow reliable quantum calculations in general relativity at low energy. After a review of these techniques, I will discuss the attempts to define the gravitational corrections to running gauge couplings and to the couplings of gravity itself. I will also describe an attempt to understand the relation between the effective field theory and Asymptotic Safety in the region where they overlap.

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.

I will describe recent work in collaboration with Adam Henderson, Alok Laddha, and Madhavan Varadarajan on the loop quantization of a certain $G_{\mathrm{N}}\rightarrow 0$ limit of Euclidean gravity, introduced by Smolin. The model allows one to test various quantization choices one is faced with in loop quantum gravity, but in a simplified setting.  The main results are the construction of finite-triangulation Hamiltonian and diffeomorphism constraint operators whose continuum limits can be evaluated in a precise sense, such that the quantum Dirac algebra of constraints closes nontrivially and free of anomalies.  The construction relies heavily on techniques of Thiemann's QSD treatment, and lessons learned applying such techniques to the loop quantization of parameterized scalar field theory and the diffeomorphism constraint in loop quantum gravity.  I will also briefly discuss the status of the quantum constraint algebra in full LQG, and how some of the lessons learned from the present model may guide us in that setting.

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.

I present a candidate for a new derivation of black hole entropy. The key observation is that the action of General Relativity in bounded regions has an imaginary part, arising from the boundary term. The formula for this imaginary part is closely related to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula, and coincides with it for certain classes of regions. This remains true in the presence of matter, and generalizes appropriately to Lovelock gravity. The imaginary part of the action is a versatile notion, requiring neither stationarity nor any knowledge about asymptotic infinity. Thus, it may provide a handle on quantum gravity in finite and dynamical regions. I derive the above results, make connections with standard approaches to black hole entropy, and speculate on the meaning of it all. Implications for loop quantum gravity are also discussed.

I will describe a discrete model of spacetime which is quantum-mechanical, causal, and background free. The kinematics is described by networks whose vertices are labelled with arrows. These networks can be evolved forwards (or backwards) in time by using unitary replacement rules. The arrow structure permits one to define dynamics without using an absolute time parameter.  Based on arXiv:1201.2489.

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.