Search results for "astro-ph."
showing 10 items of 2539 documents
Increasing the Astrophysical Reach of the Advanced Virgo Detector via the Application of Squeezed Vacuum States of Light
2019
Current interferometric gravitational-wave detectors are limited by quantum noise over a wide range of their measurement bandwidth. One method to overcome the quantum limit is the injection of squeezed vacuum states of light into the interferometer's dark port. Here, we report on the successful application of this quantum technology to improve the shot noise limited sensitivity of the Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detector. A sensitivity enhancement of up to 3.2±0.1 dB beyond the shot noise limit is achieved. This nonclassical improvement corresponds to a 5%-8% increase of the binary neutron star horizon. The squeezing injection was fully automated and over the first 5 months of the thi…
Search for Gravitational Waves Associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Fermi and Swift during the LIGO-Virgo Run O3a
2022
Abbott, R., et al. (LIGO and VIRGO Collaboration)
The advanced Virgo longitudinal control system for the O2 observing run
2020
Following a successful period of data-taking between 2006 and 2011, the Virgo gravitational-wave detector was taken offline for a major upgrade. The changes made to the instrument significantly increased the complexity of the control systems and meant that an extended period of commissioning was required to reach a sensitivity appropriate for science data-taking. This commissioning period was completed in July of 2017 and the second-generation Advanced Virgo detector went on to join the Advanced LIGO detectors in the O2 science run in August of the same year. The upgraded detector was approximately twice as sensitive to binary neutron star mergers as the first-generation instrument. During …
GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
2017
On August 17, 2017 at 12-41:04 UTC the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational-wave detectors made their first observation of a binary neutron star inspiral. The signal, GW170817, was detected with a combined signal-to-noise ratio of 32.4 and a false-alarm-rate estimate of less than one per 8.0×104 years. We infer the component masses of the binary to be between 0.86 and 2.26 M, in agreement with masses of known neutron stars. Restricting the component spins to the range inferred in binary neutron stars, we find the component masses to be in the range 1.17-1.60 M, with the total mass of the system 2.74-0.01+0.04M. The source was localized within a sky region of 28 deg2 (90% probabili…
New orbital ephemerides for the dipping source 4U 1323-619: Constraining the distance to the source
2016
4U 1323-619 is a low mass X-ray binary system that shows type I X-ray bursts and dips. The most accurate estimation of the orbital period is 2.941923(36) hrs and a distance from the source that is lower than 11 kpc has been proposed. We aim to obtain the orbital ephemeris, the orbital period of the system, as well as its derivative to compare the observed luminosity with that predicted by the theory of secular evolution. We took the advantage of about 26 years of X-ray data and grouped the selected observations when close in time. We folded the light curves and used the timing technique, obtaining 12 dip arrival times. We fit the delays of the dip arrival times both with a linear and a quad…
Timing an Accreting Millisecond Pulsar: Measuring the Accretion Torque in IGR J00291+5934
2006
We performed a timing analysis of the fastest accreting millisecond pulsar IGR J00291+5934 using RXTE data taken during the outburst of December 2004. We corrected the arrival times of all the events for the orbital (Doppler) effects and performed a timing analysis of the resulting phase delays. In this way we have the possibility to study, for the first time in this class of sources, the spin-up of a millisecond pulsar as a consequence of accretion torques during the X-ray outburst. The accretion torque gives us for the first time an independent estimate of the mass accretion rate onto the neutron star, which can be compared with the observed X-ray luminosity. We also report a revised valu…
Inference of proto-neutron star properties from gravitational-wave data in core-collapse supernovae
2021
The eventual detection of gravitational waves from core-collapse supernovae (CCSN) will help improve our current understanding of the explosion mechanism of massive stars. The stochastic nature of the late post-bounce gravitational wave signal due to the non-linear dynamics of the matter involved and the large number of degrees of freedom of the phenomenon make the source parameter inference problem very challenging. In this paper we take a step towards that goal and present a parameter estimation approach which is based on the gravitational waves associated with oscillations of proto-neutron stars (PNS). Numerical simulations of CCSN have shown that buoyancy-driven g-modes are responsible …
The beta-delayed proton and gamma decay of 27P for nuclear astrophysics
2013
The creation site of 26Al is still under debate. It is thought to be produced in hydrogen burning and in explosive helium burning in novae and supernovae, and possibly also in the H-burning in outer shells of red giant stars. Also, the reactions for its creation or destruction are not completely known. When 26Al is created in novae, the reaction chain is: 24Mg(p, γ) 25Al(β +ν) 25Mg(p, γ) 26Al, but this chain can be by-passed by another chain, 25Al(p, γ) 26Si(p, γ) 27P and it can also be destroyed directly. The reaction 26mAl(p, γ) 27Si∗ is another avenue to bypass the production of 26Al and it is dominated by resonant capture. We find and study these resonances by an indirect method, throug…
The Gaia-ESO Survey: The inner disk, intermediate-age open cluster Trumpler 23
2017
Full list of authors: Overbeek, J. C.; Friel, E. D.; Donati, P.; Smiljanic, R.; Jacobson, H. R.; Hatzidimitriou, D.; Held, E. V.; Magrini, L.; Bragaglia, A.; Randich, S.; Vallenari, A.; Cantat-Gaudin, T.; Tautvaišienė, G.; Jiménez-Esteban, F.; Frasca, A.; Geisler, D.; Villanova, S.; Tang, B.; Muñoz, C.; Marconi, G. Carraro, G.; San Roman, I.; Drazdauskas, A.; Ženovienė, R.; Gilmore, G.; Jeffries, R. D.; Flaccomio, E.; Pancino, E.; Bayo, A.; Costado, M. T.; Damiani, F.; Jofré, P.; Monaco, L.; Prisinzano, L.; Sousa, S. G.; Zaggia, S.
STUDIES OF VARIABILITY IN PROTO-PLANETARY NEBULAE. II. LIGHT AND VELOCITY CURVE ANALYSES OF IRAS 22272+5435 AND 22223+4327
2013
We have carried out a detailed observational study of the light, color, and velocity variations of two bright, carbon-rich proto-planetary nebulae, IRAS 22223+4327 and 22272+5435. The light curves are based upon our observations from 1994 to 2011, together with published data by Arkhipova and collaborators. They each display four significant periods, with primary periods for IRAS 22223+4327 and 22272+5435 being 90 and 132 days, respectively. For each of them, the ratio of secondary to primary period is 0.95, a value much different from that found in Cepheids, but which may be characteristic of post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. Fewer significant periods are found in the smaller radia…