Universe, Volume 7, Issue 1 (January 2021) – 20 articles

In this study, we improved and adapted existing signal processing methods on vast geomagnetic field data to investigate the correlations between various earthquake properties and characteristics of possible geomagnetic precursors. The data from 10 magnetometer stations were utilized to detect precursory ultra-low frequency emission and estimate the source direction for 34 earthquakes occurring between the year 2007–2016 in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South America regions. As a result, possible precursors of 20 earthquakes were identified (58.82% detection rate). Weak correlations were obtained when all precursors were considered. However, statistically significant and strong linear correlations ($r\ge 0.60,p<0.05$) were found when the precursors from two closely located stations in Japan (Onagawa (ONW) and Tohno (TNO)) were exclusively investigated. For these stations, it was found that the lead time of the precursor is strongly (or very strongly) correlated with the earthquake magnitude, the local seismicity index, and the hypocentral depth. In addition, the error percentage of the estimated direction showed a strong correlation with the hypocentral depth. It is concluded that, when the study area is restricted to a specific location, the earthquake properties are more likely to have correlations with several characteristics of the possible precursors. Full article

In this work, supervised artificial neural networks (ANN) with rapidity–mass matrix (RMM) inputs are studied using several Monte Carlo event samples for various $pp$ collision processes. The study shows the usability of this approach for general event classification problems. The proposed standardization of the ANN feature space can simplify searches for signatures of new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) when using machine learning techniques. In particular, we illustrate how to improve signal-over-background ratios in the search for new physics, how to filter out Standard Model events for model-agnostic searches, and how to separate gluon and quark jets for Standard Model measurements. Full article

We explore the possibility that Dark Matter (DM) may be explained by a nonuniform background of approximately stellar mass clusters of Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) by simulating the evolution from recombination to the present with over 5000 realisations using a Newtonian N-body code. We compute the cluster rate of evaporation and extract the binary and merged sub-populations along with their parent and merger tree histories, lifetimes and formation rates, the dynamical and orbital parameter profiles, the degree of mass segregation and dynamical friction and power spectrum of close encounters. Overall, we find that PBHs can constitute a viable DM candidate, and that their clustering presents a rich phenomenology throughout the history of the Universe. We show that binary systems constitute about 9.5% of all PBHs at present, with mass ratios of ${\overline{q}}_{\mathrm{B}}=0.154$, and total masses of ${\overline{m}}_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{B}}=303{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$. Merged PBHs are rare, about 0.0023% of all PBHs at present, with mass ratios of ${\overline{q}}_{\mathrm{B}}=0.965$ with total and chirp masses of ${\overline{m}}_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{B}}=1670{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ and ${\overline{m}}_{c,\mathrm{M}}=642{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$, respectively. We find that cluster puffing up and evaporation leads to bubbles of these PBHs of order 1 kpc containing at present times about 36% of objects and mass, with one-hundred pc-sized cores. We also find that these PBH sub-haloes are distributed in wider PBH haloes of order hundreds of kpc, containing about 63% of objects and mass, coinciding with the sizes of galactic halos. We find at last high rates of close encounters of massive Black Holes ($M\sim 1000{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$), with ${\Gamma }^{\mathrm{S}}=\left(1.2\begin{array}{c}+5.9\\ -0.9\end{array}\right)\times {10}^7{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}$ and mergers with ${\Gamma }^{\mathrm{M}}=1337\pm 41{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Gpc}}^{-3}$. Full article

As mature neutron stars are cold (on the relevant temperature scale), one has to carefully consider the state of matter in their interior. The outer kilometre or so is expected to freeze to form an elastic crust of increasingly neutron-rich nuclei, coexisting with a superfluid neutron component, while the star’s fluid core contains a mixed superfluid/superconductor. The dynamics of the star depend heavily on the parameters associated with the different phases. The presence of superfluidity brings new degrees of freedom—in essence we are dealing with a complex multi-fluid system—and additional features: bulk rotation is supported by a dense array of quantised vortices, which introduce dissipation via mutual friction, and the motion of the superfluid is affected by the so-called entrainment effect. This brief survey provides an introduction to—along with a commentary on our current understanding of—these dynamical aspects, paying particular attention to the role of entrainment, and outlines the impact of superfluidity on neutron-star seismology. Full article

In neutron stars the nuclear asymmetric matter is expected to undergo phase transitions to a superfluid state. According to simple estimates, neutron matter in the inner crust and just below should be in the s-wave superfluid phase, corresponding to the neutron-neutron ${}^1{S}_0$ channel. At higher density in the core also the proton component should be superfluid, while in the inner core the neutron matter can be in the ${}^3{P}_2$ superfluid phase. Superluidity is believed to be at the basis of the glitches phenomenon and to play a decisive influence on many processes like transport, neutrino emission and cooling, and so on. One of the peculiarity of the superfluid phase is the presence of characteristic collective excitation, the so called ’phonons’, that correspond to smooth modulations of the order parameter and display a linear spectrum at low enough momentum. This paper is a brief review of the different phonons that can appear in Neutron Star superfuid matter and their role in several dynamical processes. Particular emphasis is put on the spectral functions of the different components, that is neutron, protons and electrons, which reveal their mutual influence. The open problems are discussed and indications on the work that remain to be done are given. Full article

Two dozens of radio loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been observed with Urumqi 25 m radio telescope in order to search for intra-day variability (IDV). The target sources are blazars (namely flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac objects) which are mostly selected from the observing list of RadioAstron AGN monitoring campaigns. The observations were carried out at 4.8 GHz in two sessions of 8–12 February 2014 and 7–9 March respectively. We report the data reduction and the first results of observations. The results show that the majority of the blazars exhibit IDV in 99.9% confidence level, some of them show quite strong IDV. We find the strong IDV of blazar 1357 + 769 for the first time. The IDV at centimeter-wavelength is believed to be predominately caused by the scintillation of blazar emission through the local interstellar medium in a few hundreds parsecs away from Sun. No significant correlation between the IDV strength and either redshift or Galactic latitude is found in our sample. The IDV timescale along with source structure and brightness temperature analysis will be presented in a forthcoming paper. Full article

We present a short review of possible applications of the Wheeler-De Witt equation to cosmological models based on the low-energy string effective action, and characterised by an initial regime of asymptotically flat, low energy, weak coupling evolution. Considering in particular a class of duality-related (but classically disconnected) background solutions, we shall discuss the possibility of quantum transitions between the phases of pre-big bang and post-big bang evolution. We will show that it is possible, in such a context, to represent the birth of our Universe as a quantum process of tunneling or “anti-tunneling” from an initial state asymptotically approaching the string perturbative vacuum. Full article

It is well known that Einstein’s equations assume a simple polynomial form in the Hamiltonian framework based on a Yang-Mills phase space. We re-examine the gravitational dynamics in this framework and show that time evolution of the gravitational field can be re-expressed as (a gauge covariant generalization of) the Lie derivative along a novel shift vector field in spatial directions. Thus, the canonical transformation generated by the Hamiltonian constraint acquires a geometrical interpretation on the Yang-Mills phase space, similar to that generated by the diffeomorphism constraint. In classical general relativity this geometrical interpretation significantly simplifies calculations and also illuminates the relation between dynamics in the ‘integrable’ (anti)self-dual sector and in the full theory. For quantum gravity, it provides a point of departure to complete the Dirac quantization program for general relativity in a more satisfactory fashion. This gauge theory perspective may also be helpful in extending the ‘double copy’ ideas relating the Einstein and Yang-Mills dynamics to a non-perturbative regime. Finally, the notion of generalized, gauge covariant Lie derivative may also be of interest to the mathematical physics community as it hints at some potentially rich structures that have not been explored. Full article

I give a historical survey of the discussions about the existence of closed timelike curves in general relativistic models of the universe, opening the physical possibility of time travel in the past, as first recognized by K. Gödel in his rotating universe model of 1949. I emphasize that journeying into the past is intimately linked to spacetime models devoid of timelike singularities. Since such singularities arise as an inevitable consequence of the equations of general relativity given physically reasonable assumptions, time travel in the past becomes possible only when one or another of these assumptions is violated. It is the case with wormhole-type solutions. S. Hawking and other authors have tried to “save” the paradoxical consequences of time travel in the past by advocating physical mechanisms of chronological protection; however, such mechanisms remain presently unknown, even when quantum fluctuations near horizons are taken into account. I close the survey by a brief and pedestrian discussion of Causal Dynamical Triangulations, an approach to quantum gravity in which causality plays a seminal role. Full article

The scalar field of space-time film is considered as unified fundamental field. The field model under consideration is the space-time generalization of the model for a two-dimensional thin film. The force and metrical interactions between solitons are considered. These interactions correspond to the electromagnetic and gravitational interactions respectively. The metrical interaction and its correspondence to the gravitational one are considered in detail. The practical applications of this approach are briefly discussed. Full article

In this paper, we study the properties of gravitational waves in the scalar–tensor–vector gravity theory. The polarizations of the gravitational waves are investigated by analyzing the relative motion of the test particles. It is found that the interaction between the matter and vector field in the theory leads to two additional transverse polarization modes. By making use of the polarization content, the stress-energy pseudo-tensor is calculated by employing the perturbed equation method. Additionally, the relaxed field equation for the modified gravity in question is derived by using the Landau–Lifshitz formalism suitable to systems with non-negligible self-gravity. Full article

The solar system is populated with, other than planets, a wide variety of minor bodies, the majority of which are represented by asteroids. Most of their orbits are comprised of those between Mars and Jupiter, thus forming a population named Main Belt. However, some asteroids can run on trajectories that come close to, or even intersect, the orbit of the Earth. These objects are known as Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) or Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and may entail a risk of collision with our planet. Predicting the occurrence of such collisions as early as possible is the task of Impact Monitoring (IM). Dedicated algorithms are in charge of orbit determination and risk assessment for any detected NEO, but their efficiency is limited in cases in which the object has been observed for a short period of time, as is the case with newly discovered asteroids and, more worryingly, imminent impactors: objects due to hit the Earth, detected only a few days or hours in advance of impacts. This timespan might be too short to take any effective safety countermeasure. For this reason, a necessary improvement of current observation capabilities is underway through the construction of dedicated telescopes, e.g., the NEO Survey Telescope (NEOSTEL), also known as “Fly-Eye”. Thanks to these developments, the number of discovered NEOs and, consequently, imminent impactors detected per year, is expected to increase, thus requiring an improvement of the methods and algorithms used to handle such cases. In this paper we present two new tools, based on the Admissible Region (AR) concept, dedicated to the observers, aiming to facilitate the planning of follow-up observations of NEOs by rapidly assessing the possibility of them being imminent impactors and the remaining visibility time from any given station. Full article

A common way to calculate the glitch activity of a pulsar is an ordinary linear regression of the observed cumulative glitch history. This method however is likely to underestimate the errors on the activity, as it implicitly assumes a (long-term) linear dependence between glitch sizes and waiting times, as well as equal variance, i.e., homoscedasticity, in the fit residuals, both assumptions that are not well justified from pulsar data. In this paper, we review the extrapolation of the glitch activity parameter and explore two alternatives: the relaxation of the homoscedasticity hypothesis in the linear fit and the use of the bootstrap technique. We find a larger uncertainty in the activity with respect to that obtained by ordinary linear regression, especially for those objects in which it can be significantly affected by a single glitch. We discuss how this affects the theoretical upper bound on the moment of inertia associated with the region of a neutron star containing the superfluid reservoir of angular momentum released in a stationary sequence of glitches. We find that this upper bound is less tight if one considers the uncertainty on the activity estimated with the bootstrap method and allows for models in which the superfluid reservoir is entirely in the crust. Full article

In the binary-driven hypernova model of long gamma-ray bursts, a carbon–oxygen star explodes as a supernova in the presence of a neutron star binary companion in close orbit. Hypercritical (i.e., highly super-Eddington) accretion of the ejecta matter onto the neutron star sets in, making it reach the critical mass with consequent formation of a Kerr black hole. We have recently shown that, during the accretion process onto the neutron star, fast neutrino flavor oscillations occur. Numerical simulations of the above system show that a part of the ejecta stays bound to the newborn Kerr black hole, leading to a new process of hypercritical accretion. We address herein, also for this phase of the binary-driven hypernova, the occurrence of neutrino flavor oscillations given the extreme conditions of high density (up to ${10}^{12}$ g cm${}^{-3}$) and temperatures (up to tens of MeV) inside this disk. We estimate the behavior of the electronic and non-electronic neutrino content within the two-flavor formalism (${\nu }_e{\nu }_x$) under the action of neutrino collective effects by neutrino self-interactions. We find that in the case of inverted mass hierarchy, neutrino oscillations inside the disk have frequencies between ∼$({10}^5$–${10}^9)$ s${}^{-1}$, leading the disk to achieve flavor equipartition. This implies that the energy deposition rate by neutrino annihilation ($\nu +\overline{\nu }\to e^{-}+e^{+}$) in the vicinity of the Kerr black hole is smaller than previous estimates in the literature not accounting for flavor oscillations inside the disk. The exact value of the reduction factor depends on the ${\nu }_e$ and ${\nu }_x$ optical depths but it can be as high as ∼5. The results of this work are a first step toward the analysis of neutrino oscillations in a novel astrophysical context, and as such, deserve further attention. Full article

We have studied the possible isospin corrections on the skewness and kurtosis of net-baryon and net-charge fluctuations in the isospin asymmetric matter formed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC-BES energies, based on a 3-flavor Polyakov-looped Nambu–Jona–Lasinio model. With typical scalar–isovector and vector–isovector couplings leading to the splitting of u and d quark chiral phase transition boundaries and critical points, we have observed considerable isospin effects on the susceptibilities, especially those of net-charge fluctuations. Reliable experimental measurements at even lower collision energies are encouraged to confirm the observed isospin effects. Full article

This is a very basic and pedagogical review of the concepts of zeta function and of the associated zeta regularization method, starting from the notions of harmonic series and of divergent sums in general. By way of very simple examples, it is shown how these powerful methods are used for the regularization of physical quantities, such as quantum vacuum fluctuations in various contexts. In special, in Casimir effect setups, with a note on the dynamical Casimir effect, and mainly concerning its application in quantum theories in curved spaces, subsequently used in gravity theories and cosmology. The second part of this work starts with an essential introduction to large scale cosmology, in search of the observational foundations of the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model, and the cosmological constant issue, with the very hard problems associated with it. In short, a concise summary of all these interrelated subjects and applications, involving zeta functions and the cosmos, and an updated list of the pioneering and more influential works (according to Google Scholar citation counts) published on all these matters to date, are provided. Full article

Ever since Eddington’s analysis of the gravitational redshift a century ago, and the arguments in the relativity community that it produced, fine details of the roles of proper time and coordinate time in the redshift remain somewhat obscure. We shed light on these roles by appealing to the physics of the uniformly accelerated frame, in which coordinate time and proper time are well defined and easy to understand; and because that frame exists in flat spacetime, special relativity is sufficient to analyse it. We conclude that Eddington’s analysis was indeed correct—as was the 1980 analysis of his detractors, Earman and Glymour, who (it turns out) were following a different route. We also use the uniformly accelerated frame to pronounce invalid Schild’s old argument for spacetime curvature, which has been reproduced by many authors as a pedagogical introduction to curved spacetime. More generally, because the uniformly accelerated frame simulates a gravitational field, it can play a strong role in discussions of proper and coordinate times in advanced relativity. Full article

The article presents the results of an experimental study of the external magnetic field orientation and magnitude influence on the rubidium atomic clock, simulating the influence of the geomagnetic field on the onboard rubidium atomic clock of navigation satellites. The tensor component value of the atomic clock frequency light shift on the rubidium cell was obtained, and this value was $~$2 Hz. The comparability of the relative light shift $\left(~{10}^{-9}\right)$ and the regular gravitational correction $\left(4\times {10}^{-10}\right)$ to the frequency of the rubidium atomic clock was shown. The experimental results to determine the orientational shift influence on the rubidium atomic clock frequency were presented. A significant effect on the relative frequency instability of a rubidium atomic clock at a level of ${10}^{-12}$$\left({10}^{-13}\right)$ for rotating external magnetic field amplitudes of 1.5 A/m and 3 A/m was demonstrated. This magnitude corresponds to the geomagnetic field in the orbit of navigation satellites. The necessity of taking into account various factors (satellite orbit parameters and atomic clock characteristics) is substantiated for correct comparison of corrections to the rubidium onboard atomic clock frequency associated with the Earth’s gravitational field action and the satellite orientation in the geomagnetic field. Full article

Classical black holes contain a singularity at their core. This has prompted various researchers to propose a multitude of modified spacetimes that mimic the physically observable characteristics of classical black holes as best as possible, but that crucially do not contain singularities at their cores. Due to recent advances in near-horizon astronomy, the ability to observationally distinguish between a classical black hole and a potential black hole mimicker is becoming increasingly feasible. Herein, we calculate some physically observable quantities for a recently proposed regular black hole with an asymptotically Minkowski core—the radius of the photon sphere and the extremal stable timelike circular orbit (ESCO). The manner in which the photon sphere and ESCO relate to the presence (or absence) of horizons is much more complex than for the Schwarzschild black hole. We find situations in which photon spheres can approach arbitrarily close to (near extremal) horizons, situations in which some photon spheres become stable, and situations in which the locations of both photon spheres and ESCOs become multi-valued, with both ISCOs (innermost stable circular orbits) and OSCOs (outermost stable circular orbits). This provides an extremely rich phenomenology of potential astrophysical interest. Full article

Short timescale variability is often associated with a black hole system. The consequence of an electromagnetic outflow suddenly generated near a Kerr black hole is considered assuming that it is described by a solution of a force-free field with a null electric current. We compute charged particle acceleration induced by the burst field. We show that the particle is instantaneously accelerated to the relativistic regime by the field with a very large amplitude, which is characterized by a dimensionless number $\kappa$. Our numerical calculation demonstrates how the trajectory of the particle changes with $\kappa$. We also show that the maximum energy increases with ${\kappa }^{2/3}$. The typical maximum energy attained by a proton for an event near a super massive black hole is $E_{\max }\sim 100$ TeV, which is enough observed high-energy flares. Full article