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At least 451 records · Page 25
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Can We Detect the Quantum Nature of Weak Gravitational Fields?

A theoretical framework for the quantization of gravity has been an elusive Holy Grail since the birth of quantum theory and general relativity. While generations of scientists have attempted to find solutions to this deep riddle, an alternative path built upon the idea that experimental evidence could determine whether gravity is quantized has been decades in the making. The possibility of an experimental answer to the question of the quantization of gravity is of renewed interest in the era of gravitational wave detectors. We review and investigate an important subset of phenomenological quantum gravity, detecting quantum signatures of weak gravitational fields in table-top experiments and interferometers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2020

Finding Strong Gravitational Lenses in the DESI DECam Legacy Survey

We perform a semi-automated search for strong gravitational lensing systems in the 9000 deg 2 Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS), part of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Imaging Surveys. The combination of the depth and breadth of these surveys are unparalleled at this time, making them particularly suitable for discovering new strong gravitational lensing systems. We adopt the deep residual neural network architecture developed by Lanusse et al. for the purpose of finding strong lenses in photometric surveys. We compile a training sample that consists of known lensing systems in the Legacy Surveys and the Dark Energy Survey as well as non-lenses in the footprint of DECaLS. In this paper we show the results of applying our trained neural network to the cutout images centered on galaxies typed as ellipticals in DECaLS. The images that receive the highest scores (probabilities) are visually inspected and ranked. Here we present 335 candidate strong lensing systems, identified for the first time.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Search for Low-energy Electron Antineutrinos in KamLAND Associated with Gravitational Wave Events

We present the results of a search for MeV-scale electron antineutrino events in KamLAND in coincident with the 60 gravitational wave events/candidates reported by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration during their second and third observing runs. We find no significant coincident signals within a $\pm$ 500 s timing window from each gravitational wave and present 90% C.L. upper limits on the electron antineutrino fluence between $10^{8}$-$10^{13}\,{\mathrm cm^2}$ for neutrino energies in the energy range of 1.8-111 MeV.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Mining for Strong Gravitational Lenses with Self-supervised Learning

We employ self-supervised representation learning to distill information from 76 million galaxy images from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Imaging Surveys’ Data Release 9. Targeting the identification of new strong gravitational lens candidates, we first create a rapid similarity search tool to discover new strong lenses given only a single labeled example. We then show how training a simple linear classifier on the self-supervised representations, requiring only a few minutes on a CPU, can automatically classify strong lenses with great efficiency. We present 1192 new strong lens candidates that we identified through a brief visual identification campaign and release an interactive web-based similarity search tool and the top network predictions to facilitate crowd-sourcing rapid discovery of additional strong gravitational lenses and other rare objects: github.com/georgestein/ssl-legacysurvey.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Orbital Decay of Double White Dwarfs: Beyond Gravitational-wave Radiation Effects

The traditional description of the orbital evolution of compact-object binaries, like double white dwarfs (DWDs), assumes that the system is driven only by gravitational-wave (GW) radiation. However, the high magnetic fields with intensities of up to gigagausses measured in WDs alert a potential role of the electromagnetic (EM) emission in the evolution of DWDs. We evaluate the orbital dynamics of DWDs under the effects of GW radiation, tidal synchronization, and EM emission by a unipolar inductor generated by the magnetic primary and the relative motion of the nonmagnetic secondary. We show that the EM emission can affect the orbital dynamics for magnetic fields larger than megagausses. We applied the model to two known DWDs, SDSS J0651+2844 and ZTF J1539+5027, for which the GW radiation alone does not fully account for the measured orbital decay rate. We obtain upper limits to the primary's magnetic field strength, over which the EM emission causes an orbital decay faster than observed. The contribution of tidal locking and the EM emission is comparable, and together they can contribute up to 20% to the measured orbital decay rate. We show that the gravitational waveform for a DWD modeled as purely driven by GWs and including tidal interactions and EM emission can have large relative dephasing detectable in the mHz regime of frequencies relevant for space-based detectors like LISA. Therefore, including physics besides GW radiation in the waveform templates is essential to calibrate the GW detectors using known sources, e.g., ZTF J1539+5027, and to infer binary parameters.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

From Images to Dark Matter: End-to-end Inference of Substructure from Hundreds of Strong Gravitational Lenses

Abstract Constraining the distribution of small-scale structure in our universe allows us to probe alternatives to the cold dark matter paradigm. Strong gravitational lensing offers a unique window into small dark matter halos (<10 10 M ⊙ ) because these halos impart a gravitational lensing signal even if they do not host luminous galaxies. We create large data sets of strong lensing images with realistic low-mass halos, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observational effects, and galaxy light from HST’s COSMOS field. Using a simulation-based inference pipeline, we train a neural posterior estimator of the subhalo mass function (SHMF) and place constraints on populations of lenses generated using a separate set of galaxy sources. We find that by combining our network with a hierarchical inference framework, we can both reliably infer the SHMF across a variety of configurations and scale efficiently to populations with hundreds of lenses. By conducting precise inference on large and complex simulated data sets, our method lays a foundation for extracting dark matter constraints from the next generation of wide-field optical imaging surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Global Simulations of Gravitational Instability in Protostellar Disks with Full Radiation Transport. II. Locality of Gravitoturbulence, Clumpy Spirals, and Implications for Observable Substructure

Spiral perturbations in a gravitationally unstable accretion disk regulate disk evolution through angular momentum transport and heating and provide an observational signature of gravitational instability (GI). We use global 3D simulations to systematically characterize and understand these spiral perturbations. The spiral perturbations and the resulting transport are overall insensitive to the cooling type, with the exception that radiative cooling, especially in the optically thick regime, reduces the amplitude of temperature perturbations. Spiral perturbations are localized around corotation, allowing transport to be approximated by a local α viscosity to zeroth order in aspect ratio (H/R), but only after averaging over multiple orbits in time and/or multiple scale heights in space. Meanwhile, large-amplitude perturbations from strong gravitoturbulence can cause $\mathcal{O}$(α 1/2 ) deviation in the cooling rate of the disk. We develop empirical prescriptions for the angular momentum transport, heating, and cooling in a gravitoturbulent disk that capture the deviation from a viscous, unperturbed disk to first order in H/R and α 1/2 . The spiral perturbations in saturated gravitoturbulence are clumpy, with dense clumps forming through the nonlinear coupling between multiple modes at different m. Observationally, the clumpy gravitoturbulence produced by saturated GI can be mistaken with observational noise or embedded companions, especially under finite resolution. Meanwhile, grand-design spirals with m-fold symmetry may be uncommon among disks in saturated gravitoturbulence, and we speculate that they may instead be a signature of recently triggered or decaying GI.

Gravitational instability↗
DOE OSTI2025

$\mathrm{SageNet}$: Fast Neural Network Emulation of the Stiff-amplified Gravitational Waves from Inflation

Accurate modeling of the inflationary gravitational waves (GWs) requires time-consuming, iterative numerical integrations of differential equations to take into account their backreaction on the expansion history. To improve computational efficiency while preserving accuracy, we present the Stiff-amplified Gravitational-wave Emulator Network (SageNet), a deep learning framework designed to replace conventional numerical solvers (code available at https://github.com/YifangLuo/SageNet). SageNet employs a long short-term memory architecture to emulate the present-day energy density spectrum of the inflationary GWs with possible stiff amplification, Ω GW (f). Trained on a data set of 25,689 numerically generated solutions, SageNet allows accurate reconstructions of Ω GW (f) and generalizes well to a wide range of cosmological parameters; 90.9% of the test emulations with randomly distributed parameters exhibit errors of under 4%. In addition, SageNet demonstrates its ability to learn and reproduce the artificial, adaptive sampling patterns in numerical calculations, which implement denser sampling of frequencies around changes in spectral indices in Ω GW (f). The dual capability of learning both physical and artificial features of the numerical GW spectra establishes SageNet as a robust alternative to exact numerical methods. Finally, our benchmark tests show that SageNet reduces the computation time from tens of seconds to milliseconds, achieving a speedup of ∼10 4 times over standard CPU-based numerical solvers with the potential for further acceleration on GPU hardware. These capabilities make SageNet a powerful tool for accelerating Bayesian inference procedures for extended cosmological models. In a broad sense, the SageNet framework offers a fast, accurate, and generalizable solution to modeling cosmological observables whose theoretical predictions demand costly differential equation solvers.

Astronomy data modeling↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Statistical Standard Siren Measurement of the Hubble Constant from the LIGO/Virgo Gravitational Wave Compact Object Merger GW190814 and Dark Energy Survey Galaxies

We present a measurement of the Hubble constant H 0 using the gravitational wave (GW) event GW190814, which resulted from the coalescence of a 23 M ⊙ black hole with a 2.6 M ⊙ compact object, as a standard siren. No compelling electromagnetic counterpart has been identified for this event; thus our analysis accounts for thousands of potential host galaxies within a statistical framework. The redshift information is obtained from the photometric redshift (photo- z ) catalog from the Dark Energy Survey. The luminosity distance is provided by the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave sky map. Since this GW event has the second-smallest localization volume after GW170817, GW190814 is likely to provide the best constraint on cosmology from a single standard siren without identifying an electromagnetic counterpart. Furthermore, our analysis uses photo- z probability distribution functions and corrects for photo- z biases. We also reanalyze the binary black hole GW170814 within this updated framework. We explore how our findings impact the H 0 constraints from GW170817, the only GW merger associated with a unique host galaxy. From a combination of GW190814, GW170814, and GW170817, our analysis yields H 0 =72.0$_{+12}^{–8.2}$ km s -1 Mpc -1 (68% highest-density interval, HDI) for a prior in H 0 uniform between [20 and 140] km s -1 Mpc -1 . The addition of GW190814 and GW170814 to GW170817 improves the 68% HDI from GW170817 alone by ~18%, showing how well-localized mergers without counterparts can provide a significant contribution to standard siren measurements, provided that a complete galaxy catalog is available at the location of the event.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2003

Effect of gravitational sedimentation on simulated aerosol dispersion in the human acinus

We studied the effect of gravitational sedimentation on the dispersion of 0.5 and 1 micrometer-diameter particle boluses within a two-dimensional symmetric six-generation model of the human acinus. Boluses were introduced at the beginning of a 2-s inspiration immediately followed by a 4-s expiration, in normal gravity (1 G) and in the absence of gravity (0 G). The flow corresponded to a flow rate at the mouth of 500 ml/s. In 0 G, simulated dispersion (Hsim) was 16 ml for both particle sizes. In 1 G, Hsim was 71 and 242 ml for 0.5 and 1 micrometer-diameter particles, respectively, showing the effect of gravitational sedimentation. The difference between experimental data (J. Appl. Physiol. 86 (1999) 1402) and simulations was independent of particle size. This suggests that the residual dispersion was independent of the intrinsic properties of the particles and was more likely due to other mechanisms such as ventilation inhomogeneities, cardiogenic oscillations and alveolar wall motion. c2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

short duration↗
NASA NTRS1993

The Second Annual Symposium of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in Gravitational Biology

The second annual meeting of the NSCORT in Gravitational Biology was held at Kansas State University on September 29-October 1, 1992. Symposium presentations at the meeting included ones on basic gravitational cellular and developmental biology, spaceflight hardware for biological studies, studies on Space Shuttle, and special talks on Space Station Freedom and on life support systems.

NASA Discipline Number 93-10↗
NASA NTRS1994

Insect gravitational biology: ground-based and shuttle flight experiments using the beetle Tribolium castaneum

Many of the traditional experimental advantages of insects recommend their use in studies of gravitational and space biology. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is an obvious choice for studies of the developmental significance of gravity vectors because of the unparalleled description of regulatory mechanisms controlling oogenesis and embryogenesis. However, we demonstrate that Drosophila could not survive the conditions mandated for particular flight opportunities on the Space Shuttle. With the exception of Drosophila, the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is the insect best characterized with respect to molecular embryology and most frequently utilized for past space flights. We show that Tribolium is dramatically more resistant to confinement in small sealed volumes. In preparation for flight experiments we characterize the course and timing of the onset of oogenesis in newly eclosed adult females. Finally, we present results from two shuttle flights which indicate that a number of aspects of the development and function of the female reproductive system are not demonstrably sensitive to microgravity. Available information supports the utility of this insect for future studies of gravitational biology.

NASA Discipline Developmental Biology↗
NASA NTRS2001

Effects of gravitational and optical stimulation on the perception of target elevation

To examine the combined effects of gravitational and optical stimulation on perceived target elevation, we independently altered gravitational-inertial force and both the orientation and the structure of a background visual array. While being exposed to 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 Gz in the human centrifuge at NASA Ames Research Center, observers attempted to set a target to the apparent horizon. The target was viewed against the far wall of a box that was pitched at various angles. The box was brightly illuminated, had only its interior edges dimly illuminated, or was kept dark. Observers lowered their target settings as Gz was increased; this effect was weakened when the box was illuminated. Also, when the box was visible, settings were displaced in the same direction as that in which the box was pitched. We attribute our results to the combined influence of otolith-oculomotor mechanisms that underlie the elevator illusion and visual-oculomotor mechanisms (optostatic responses) that underlie the perceptual effects of viewing pitched visual arrays.

NASA Discipline Neuroscience↗
NASA NTRS1998

Spacecraft to Spacecraft Coherent Laser Tracking as a Xylophone Interferometer Detector of Gravitational Radiation

Searches for gravitational radiation can be performed in space with two spacecraft tracking each other with coherent laser light. This experimental technique could be implemented with two spacecraft carrying an appropriate optical payload, or with the proposed broad-band, space-based laser interferometer detectors of gravitational waves operated in this non-interferometric mode.

interferometer↗