General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)

Abstract: We perform a comprehensive numerical study of gravitational waves from stellar core collapse in the massive scalar-tensor theory with the cubic and quartic self-interactions of the scalar field. We investigate the dependence of gravitational waves on the self-interaction as well as the mass of the scalar field and the conformal factor. We find that gravitational-wave spectra show a systematic difference between the cubic and quartic self-interactions. We also find that this systematic difference is insensitive to the mass of the scalar field and the conformal factor. Our results indicate that the type of the self-interaction could be constrained by observations of gravitational waves using the future-planned detectors.

Abstract: In this study, we investigate the cosmological history within the framework of modified $f(Q)$ gravity, which proposes an alternative theory of gravity where the gravitational force is described by a non-metricity scalar. By employing a parametrization scheme for the Hubble parameter, we obtain the exact solution to the field equations in $f(Q)$ cosmology. To constrain our model, we utilize external datasets, including 57 data points from the Hubble dataset, 1048 data points from the SN dataset, and six data points from the BAO dataset. This enables us to determine the best-fit values for the model parameters involved in the parameterization scheme. We analyze the cosmic evolution of various cosmological parameters, including the deceleration parameter, which exhibits the expected behavior in late-time cosmology and changes its signature with redshift. Further, we present the evolution of energy density, EoS parameter, and other geometrical parameters with respect to redshift. Furthermore, we discuss several cosmological tests and diagnostic analyses. Our findings demonstrate that the late-time cosmic evolution can be adequately described without the need for dark energy by employing a parametrization scheme in modified gravity.

Abstract: This note aims at investigating two different situations where the classical general relativistic dynamics compete with the evolution driven by Hawking evaporation. We focus, in particular, on binary systems of black holes emitting gravitational waves and gravitons, and on the cosmological evolution when black holes are immersed in their own radiation bath. Several non-trivial features are underlined in both cases.

Abstract: Hawking radiation is the proposed thermal black-body radiation of quantum nature emitted from a black hole. One common way to give an account of Hawking radiation is to consider a detector that follows a static trajectory in the vicinity of a black hole and interacts with the quantum field of the radiation. In the present work, we study the Hawking radiation perceived by a detector that follows a quantum superposition of static trajectories in Schwarzschild spacetime, instead of a unique well-defined trajectory. We analyze the quantum state of the detector after the interaction with a massless real scalar field. We find that for certain trajectories and excitation levels, there are non-vanishing coherences in the final state of the detector. We then examine the dependence of these coherences on the trajectories followed by the detector and relate them to the distinguishability of the different possible states in which the field is left after the excitation of the detector. We interpret our results in terms of the spatial distribution and propagation of particles of the quantum field.

Abstract: We investigate the existence of minisuperspace description for the homogeneous cosmological field equations within the framework of symmetric teleparallel $f(Q)$-gravity. We consider the background space to be described by the isotropic Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker geometry, the anisotropic Kantowski-Sachs and the anisotropic Bianchi III geometries. Across all these models, we establish that the field equations in $f(Q)$-gravity exhibit second-order characteristics in the coincidence gauge and sixth-order characteristics in the non-coincidence gauge. Specifically, within the latter scenario, the dynamic degrees of freedom are attributed to two scalar fields. Finally, as an example of integrability, we derive a vacuum cosmological solution within the non-coincidence gauge.

Abstract: The millihertz gravitational wave band is expected to be opened by space-borne detectors like TianQin. Various mechanisms can produce short outbursts of gravitational waves, whose actual waveform can be hard to model. In order to identify such gravitational wave bursts and not to misclassify them as noise transients, we proposed a proof-of-principle energy excess method, that utilized the signal-insensitive channel to veto noise transients. We perform a test on simulated data, and for bursts with a signal-to-noise ratio of 20, even with the contamination of noise transient, our methods can reach a detection efficiency of 97.4% under a false alarm rate of once per year. However, more frequent occurrences of noise transients would lower the detection efficiency.

Abstract: In this work, we explore the effects of surrounding dark matter featuring different equations of state on the axial gravitational quasinormal modes of supermassive black holes situated at the center of galaxies. Our attention primarily rests on dark matter exhibiting a spike structure, originating from relativistic Bondi accretion through an adiabatic process, which diminishes at a certain distance from the black hole. We analyze how varying the equation of state of the dark matter influences the properties of the spacetime in the black hole's vicinity. Our findings reveal that different states of dark matter spikes correspondingly affect the black hole's quasinormal modes. In particular, we identify deviations in both the ringing frequency and damping time, reaching magnitudes of up to $10^{-3}$ for certain parameter values. These variations can potentially be detected by upcoming space-borne detectors. Our findings thus indicate the feasibility of discerning and limiting the essential properties of dark matter surrounding supermassive black holes using future gravitational wave detections, particularly in the case of extreme mass ratio inspiral systems.