Search

Current- and next-generation gravitational-wave observatories may reveal new, ultralight bosons. Through the superradiance process, these theoretical particle candidates can form clouds around astrophysical black holes and result in detectable gravitational-wave radiation. In the absence of detections, constraints$-$contingent on astrophysical assumptions$-$have been derived using LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA data on boson masses. However, the searches for ultralight scalars to date have not adequately considered self-interactions between particles. Self-interactions that significantly alter superradiance dynamics are generically present for many scalar models, including axion-like dark matter candidates and string axions. We implement the most complete treatment of particle self-interactions available to determine the gravitational-wave signatures expected from superradiant scalar clouds and revisit the constraints obtained in a past gravitational-wave search targeting the black hole in Cygnus X-1. We also project the reach of next-generation gravitational-wave observatories to scalar particle parameter space in the mass-coupling plane. We find that while proposed observatories have insufficient reach to self-interactions that can halt black hole spin-down, next-generation observatories are essential for expanding the search beyond gravitational parameter space and can reach a mass and interaction scale of $\sim 10^{-13}-10^{-12}$ eV/c$^2$ and $\gtrsim 10^{17}$ GeV, respectively.

Precision measurements of space and time, like those made by the detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), are often confronted with fundamental limitations imposed by quantum mechanics. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle dictates that the position and momentum of an object cannot both be precisely measured, giving rise to an apparent limitation called the Standard Quantum Limit (SQL). Reducing quantum noise below the SQL in gravitational-wave detectors, where photons are used to continuously measure the positions of freely falling mirrors, has been an active area of research for decades. Here we show how the LIGO A+ upgrade reduced the detectors' quantum noise below the SQL by up to 3 dB while achieving a broadband sensitivity improvement, more than two decades after this possibility was first presented.

Ultralight bosons with masses in the range from $\sim 10^{-22}$ eV to $\sim 1$ eV, are well-motivated, wave-like dark matter candidates. Particles on the lower-mass end are less explored in experiments due to their vanishingly small mass and weak coupling to the Standard Model. We propose to search for U(1)$_{B\!-\!L}$ gauge boson dark matter using a Torsion Pendulum Dual Oscillator (TorPeDO), a sensor originally designed to detect Newtonian gravitational field fluctuations with an enhanced differential torque sensitivity in a frequency band of $\sim 10^{-2}$-$10$ Hz. We describe the experiment setup of a modified TorPeDO sensor, equipped with four 5-kg end test masses (two made from beryllium and two from aluminium). We present the estimated sensitivity to an ultralight dark matter field coupled to baryon minus lepton ($B\!-\!L$) number, in a mass range of $\sim 10^{-17}$-$10^{-13}$ eV. The projected constraints on the coupling constant $g_{B\!-\!L} (\hbar c)^{-1/2}$ can reach $\sim 10^{-29}$ for a boson mass of $\sim 10^{-15}$ eV in the most sensitive frequency band., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We present results of a follow-up search for continuous gravitational waves (CWs) associated with sub-threshold candidates from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) All-Sky All-Frequency (ASAF) directed radiometer analysis, using Advanced LIGO data from the third observing run (O3). Each ASAF candidate corresponds to a $1/32\,\,\mathrm{Hz}$ frequency band and ${\sim}13\,\,\mathrm{deg}^2$ sky pixel. Assuming they represent possible CW sources, we analyze all $515$ ASAF candidates using a semi-coherent, $\mathcal{F}$-statistic-based matched filter search. The search algorithm incorporates a hidden Markov model (HMM), expanding the signal model to allow frequency spin-wandering, as well as unmodeled frequency evolution of less than $10^{-5}$ Hz per day that is not captured by the searched range of $\pm10^{-9}\,\,\mathrm{Hz/s}$ in frequency derivative. Significance thresholds with a $5\%$ probability of false alarm per ASAF candidate are determined empirically by searching detector noise at various off-target sky positions. We obtain $14$ outliers surviving a set of vetoes designed to eliminate instrumental artifacts. Upon further investigation, these outliers are deemed unlikely to represent astrophysical signals. We estimate the sensitivity of our search to both isolated and binary sources with orbital period greater than one year by recovering simulated signals added to detector data. The minimum detectable strain amplitude at $95\%$ confidence for isolated (long-period binary) sources is $h_0^{95\%} = 8.8\times 10^{-26}$ ($9.4\times 10^{-26}$) at a frequency of $222.6\,\,\mathrm{Hz}$. While this study focuses on ASAF sub-threshold candidates, the method presented could be applied to follow up candidates from future all-sky CW searches, complementing currently existing methods., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Published in PRD

In this work we characterise the performance of a new search technique designed to be sensitive to the remnants of binary neutron star systems. Sensitivity estimates of the new method on simulated data are competitive against those of other work. Previous searches for a gravitational-wave signal from a possible neutron star remnant of the binary neutron star merger event GW170817 have focused on short ($<500$~s) and long duration (2.5~hr -- 8~day) signals. To date, no such post-merger signal has been detected. We introduce a new piecewise model which has the flexibility to accurately follow gravitational-wave signals which are rapidly evolving in frequency, such as those which may be emitted from young neutron stars born from binary neutron star mergers or supernovae. We investigate the sensitivity and computational cost of this piecewise model when used in a fully coherent 1800-second $\mathcal{F}$-statistic search on simulated data containing possible signals from the GW170817 remnant. The sensitivity of the search using the piecewise model is determined using simulated data, with noise consistent with the LIGO second observing run. Across a 100--2000~Hz frequency band, the model achieves a peak sensitivity of $h_{\text{rss}}^{50\%} = 4.4 \times 10^{-23} \text{Hz}^{-1/2}$ at 200~Hz, competitive with other methods. The computational cost of conducting the search, over a bank of $1.1 \times 10^{12}$ templates, is estimated at 10 days running on 100 CPU's., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables

Joint observations of gravitational waves and electromagnetic counterparts will answer questions about cosmology, gamma-ray bursts, and the behaviour of matter at supranuclear densities. The addition of a Southern-Hemisphere gravitational-wave observatory to proposed global networks creates a longer baseline, which is beneficial for sky localisation. We analyse how an observatory in Australia can enhance the multi-messenger astronomy capabilities of future networks. We estimate the number of binary neutron star mergers with joint observations of gravitational waves and kilonova counterparts detectable by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. First, we consider a network of upgrades to current observatories. Adding an Australian observatory to a three-observatory network (comprising two observatories in the USA and one in Europe) boosts the rate of joint observations from $2.5^{+4.5}_{-2.0}$ per year to $5.6^{+10}_{-4.5}$ per year (a factor of two improvement). Then, we consider a network of next-generation observatories. Adding a $20$ km Australian observatory to a global network of a Cosmic Explorer $40$ km in the USA and an Einstein Telescope in Europe only marginally increases the rate from $40^{+71}_{-32}$ per year to $44^{+79}_{-35}$ per year (a factor of 1.1 improvement). The addition of an Australian observatory, however, ensures that at least two observatories are online far more often. When the Cosmic Explorer $40$ km is offline for a major upgrade, the Australian observatory increases the joint observation rate from $0.5^{+0.8}_{-0.4}$ per year to $38^{+68}_{-30}$ per year (a factor of 82 improvement). When the Einstein Telescope is offline, the joint observation rate increases from $0.2^{+0.3}_{-0.1}$ per year to $19^{+34}_{-15}$ per year (a factor of 113 improvement). We sketch out the broader science case for a Southern-Hemisphere gravitational-wave observatory., Comment: v1, 13 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to PRD on August 24 2023

Gravitational-wave observations by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo have provided us a new tool to explore the Universe on all scales from nuclear physics to the cosmos and have the massive potential to further impact fundamental physics, astrophysics, and cosmology for decades to come. In this paper we have studied the science capabilities of a network of LIGO detectors when they reach their best possible sensitivity, called A#, given the infrastructure in which they exist and a new generation of observatories that are factor of 10 to 100 times more sensitive (depending on the frequency), in particular a pair of L-shaped Cosmic Explorer observatories (one 40 km and one 20 km arm length) in the US and the triangular Einstein Telescope with 10 km arms in Europe. The presence of one or two A# observatories in a network containing two or one next generation observatories, respectively, will provide good localization capabilities for facilitating multimessenger astronomy and precision measurement of the Hubble parameter. Two Cosmic Explorer observatories are indispensable for achieving precise localization of binary neutron star events, facilitating detection of electromagnetic counterparts and transforming multimessenger astronomy. Their combined operation is even more important in the detection and localization of high-redshift sources, such as binary neutron stars, beyond the star-formation peak, and primordial black hole mergers, which may occur roughly 100 million years after the Big Bang. The addition of the Einstein Telescope to a network of two Cosmic Explorer observatories is critical for accomplishing all the identified science metrics. For most metrics the triple network of next generation terrestrial observatories are a factor 100 better than what can be accomplished by a network of three A# observatories., Comment: 48 pages, 20 figures, 14 tables

Gravitational-wave astronomy has revolutionized humanity's view of the universe, a revolution driven by observations that no other field can make. This white paper describes an observatory that builds on decades of investment by the National Science Foundation and that will drive discovery for decades to come: Cosmic Explorer. Major discoveries in astronomy are driven by three related improvements: better sensitivity, higher precision, and opening new observational windows. Cosmic Explorer promises all three and will deliver an order-of-magnitude greater sensitivity than LIGO. Cosmic Explorer will push the gravitational-wave frontier to almost the edge of the observable universe using technologies that have been proven by LIGO during its development. With the unprecedented sensitivity that only a new facility can deliver, Cosmic Explorer will make discoveries that cannot yet be anticipated, especially since gravitational waves are both synergistic with electromagnetic observations and can reach into regions of the universe that electromagnetic observations cannot explore. With Cosmic Explorer, scientists can use the universe as a laboratory to test the laws of physics and study the nature of matter. Cosmic Explorer allows the United States to continue its leading role in gravitational-wave science and the international network of next-generation observatories. With its extraordinary discovery potential, Cosmic Explorer will deliver revolutionary observations across astronomy, physics, and cosmology including: Black Holes and Neutron Stars Throughout Cosmic Time, Multi-Messenger Astrophysics and Dynamics of Dense Matter, New Probes of Extreme Astrophysics, Fundamental Physics and Precision Cosmology, Dark Matter and the Early Universe.

Ultralight bosons are predicted in many extensions to the Standard Model and are popular dark matter candidates. The black hole superradiance mechanism allows for these particles to be probed using only their gravitational interaction. In this scenario, an ultralight boson cloud may form spontaneously around a spinning black hole and extract a non-negligible fraction of the black hole's mass. These oscillating clouds produce quasi-monochromatic, long-duration gravitational waves that may be detectable by ground-based or space-based gravitational wave detectors. We discuss the capability of a new long-duration signal tracking method, based on a hidden Markov model, to detect gravitational wave signals generated by ultralight vector boson clouds, including cases where the signal frequency evolution timescale is much shorter than that of a typical continuous wave signal. We quantify the detection horizon distances for vector boson clouds with current- and next-generation ground-based detectors. We demonstrate that vector clouds hosted by black holes with mass $\gtrsim 60 M_{\odot}$ and spin $\gtrsim 0.6$ are within the reach of current-generation detectors up to a luminosity distance of $\sim 1$ Gpc. This search method enables one to target vector boson clouds around remnant black holes from compact binary mergers detected by gravitational-wave detectors. We discuss the impact of the sky localization of the merger events and demonstrate that a typical remnant black hole reasonably well-localized by the current generation detector network is accessible in a follow-up search., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures

We formulate a Bayesian framework to analyze ringdown gravitational waves from colliding binary black holes and test the no-hair theorem. The idea hinges on mode cleaning -- revealing subdominant oscillation modes by removing dominant ones using newly proposed ${\it rational~filters}$. By incorporating the filter into Bayesian inference, we construct a likelihood function that depends only on the mass and spin of the remnant black hole (no dependence on mode amplitudes and phases) and implement an efficient pipeline to constrain the remnant mass and spin without Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). We test ringdown models by cleaning combinations of different modes and evaluating the consistency between the residual data and pure noise. The model evidence and Bayes factor are used to demonstrate the presence of a particular mode and to infer the mode starting time. In addition, we design a hybrid approach to estimate the remnant black hole properties exclusively from a single mode using MCMC after mode cleaning. We apply the framework to GW150914 and demonstrate more definitive evidence of the first overtone by cleaning the fundamental mode. This new framework provides a powerful tool for black hole spectroscopy in future gravitational-wave events.

There have been debates in the literature about the existence of the first overtone in the ringdown of GW150914. We develop a novel Bayesian framework to reanalyze the data of this event, by incorporating a new technique, the "rational filter" that can clean particular modes from the ringdown signal. We examine the existence of the first overtone in GW150914 from multiple novel perspectives. First, we confirm that the estimates of the remnant black hole mass and spin are more consistent with those obtained from the full IMR signal when including the first overtone at an early stage of the ringdown (right after the inferred signal peak); such improvement fades away at later times. Second, we formulate a new way to compare the ringdown models with and without the first overtone by calculating the Bayes factor at different times during the ringdown. We obtain a Bayes factor of 600 at the time when the signal amplitude reaches its peak. The Bayes factor decreases sharply when moving away from the peak time and eventually oscillates around a small value when the overtone signal is expected to have decayed. Third, we clean the fundamental mode from the ringdown of GW150914 and estimate the amplitudes of the modes using the filtered data with MCMC. The inferred amplitude of the fundamental mode is ~0 whereas the amplitude of the first overtone remains almost unchanged, implying that the filtered data is consistent with a first-overtone-only template. Similarly, if we remove the first overtone from the GW150914 data, the filtered data are consistent with a fundamental-mode-only template. Finally, after removing the fundamental mode, we use MCMC to infer the remnant black hole mass and spin from the first overtone alone. We find the posteriors are still informative and consistent with those inferred from the fundamental mode.

With the demand for standardized large-scale livestock farming and the development of artificial intelligence technology, a lot of research in area of animal face recognition were carried on pigs, cattle, sheep and other livestock. Face recognition consists of three sub-task: face detection, face normalizing and face identification. Most of animal face recognition study focuses on face detection and face identification. Animals are often uncooperative when taking photos, so the collected animal face images are often in arbitrary directions. The use of non-standard images may significantly reduce the performance of face recognition system. However, there is no study on normalizing of the animal face image with arbitrary directions. In this study, we developed a light-weight angle detection and region-based convolutional network (LAD-RCNN) containing a new rotation angle coding method that can detect the rotation angle and the location of animal face in one-stage. LAD-RCNN has a frame rate of 72.74 FPS (including all steps) on a single GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GPU. LAD-RCNN has been evaluated on multiple dataset including goat dataset and gaot infrared image. Evaluation result show that the AP of face detection was more than 95% and the deviation between the detected rotation angle and the ground-truth rotation angle were less than 0.036 (i.e. 6.48{\deg}) on all the test dataset. This shows that LAD-RCNN has excellent performance on livestock face and its direction detection, and therefore it is very suitable for livestock face detection and Normalizing. Code is available at https://github.com/SheepBreedingLab-HZAU/LAD-RCNN/, Comment: 8 figures, 5 tables

Cosmic Probes of Fundamental Physics take two primary forms: Very high energy particles (cosmic rays, neutrinos, and gamma rays) and gravitational waves. Already today, these probes give access to fundamental physics not available by any other means, helping elucidate the underlying theory that completes the Standard Model. The last decade has witnessed a revolution of exciting discoveries such as the detection of high-energy neutrinos and gravitational waves. The scope for major developments in the next decades is dramatic, as we detail in this report., Comment: Report of theTopical Group on Cosmic Probes of Fundamental Physics, for the U.S. decadal Particle Physics Planning Exercise (Snowmass 2021)

We propose two frequency-domain filters to analyze ringdown signals of binary black hole mergers. The first rational filter is constructed based on a set of (arbitrary) quasi-normal modes (QNMs) of the remnant black holes, whereas the second full filter comes from the transmissivity of the remnant black holes. The two filters can remove corresponding QNMs from original time-domain ringdowns, while changing early inspiral signals in a trivial way - merely a time and phase shift. After filtering out dominant QNMs, we can visualize the existence of various subdominant effects. For example, by applying our filters to a GW150914-like numerical relativity (NR) waveform, we find second-order effects in the (l = 4, m = 4), (l = 5, m = 4) and (l = 5, m = 5) harmonics; the spherical-spheroidal mixing mode in the (l = 2,m = 2) harmonic; and a mixing mode in the (l = 2,m = 1) harmonic due to a gravitational recoil. In another NR simulation where two component spins are anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum, we also find retrograde modes. The filters are sensitive to the remnant properties (i.e., mass and spin) and thus have a potential application to future data analyses and parameter estimations. We also investigate the stability of the full filter. Its connection to the instability of QNM spectra is discussed.

Transient noise glitches in gravitational-wave detector data limit the sensitivity of searches and contaminate detected signals. In this Paper, we show how glitches can be simulated using generative adversarial networks. We produce hundreds of synthetic images for the 22 most common types of glitches seen in the LIGO, KAGRA, and Virgo detectors. The artificial glitches can be used to improve the performance of searches and parameter-estimation algorithms. We perform a neural network classification to show that our artificial glitches are an excellent match for real glitches, with an average classification accuracy across all 22 glitch types of 99.0%.

With the fast-growing GUI development workload in the Internet industry, some work on intelligent methods attempted to generate maintainable front-end code from UI screenshots. It can be more suitable for utilizing UI design drafts that contain UI metadata. However, fragmented layers inevitably appear in the UI design drafts which greatly reduces the quality of code generation. None of the existing GUI automated techniques detects and merges the fragmented layers to improve the accessibility of generated code. In this paper, we propose UI Layers Merger (UILM), a vision-based method, which can automatically detect and merge fragmented layers into UI components. Our UILM contains Merging Area Detector (MAD) and a layers merging algorithm. MAD incorporates the boundary prior knowledge to accurately detect the boundaries of UI components. Then, the layers merging algorithm can search out the associated layers within the components' boundaries and merge them into a whole part. We present a dynamic data augmentation approach to boost the performance of MAD. We also construct a large-scale UI dataset for training the MAD and testing the performance of UILM. The experiment shows that the proposed method outperforms the best baseline regarding merging area detection and achieves a decent accuracy regarding layers merging., Comment: 15 pages, accepted to Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering. This is a preprint version, the copyright belongs to the Springer Nature journals

Gravitational-wave (GW) detections of electromagnetically bright compact binary coalescences can provide an independent measurement of the Hubble constant $H_0$. In order to obtain a measurement that could help arbitrating the existing tension on $H_0$, one needs to fully understand any source of systematic biases for this approach. In this study, we aim at understanding the impact of instrumental calibration errors (CEs) and uncertainties on luminosity distance measurements, $D_L$, and the inferred $H_0$ results. We simulate binary neutron star mergers (BNSs), as detected by a network of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo interferometers at their design sensitivity. We artificially add CEs equal to exceptionally large values experienced in LIGO-Virgo's third observing run (O3). We find that for individual BNSs at a network signal-to-noise ratio of 50, the systematic errors on $D_L$ - and hence $H_0$ - are still smaller than the statistical uncertainties. The biases become more significant when we combine multiple events to obtain a joint posterior on $H_0$. In the rather unrealistic case that the data around each detection is affected by the same CEs corresponding to the worst offender of O3, the true $H_0$ value would be excluded from the 90% credible interval after $\sim40$ sources. If instead 10% of the sources suffer from severe CEs, the true value of $H_0$ is included in the 90% credible interval even after we combine 100 sources., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, 2 tables

The current understanding of dark matter comes largely from measurements of the total matter content in the universe, from the distribution of gravitating matter on very large scales, and from rotation curves and velocity dispersions on sub-galactic scales. However, small-scale structure may well hold the key to unlocking the particle physics of the still-mysterious 85% of matter in the universe. Novel small-scale astrophysical probes of new particles and dark matter will become possible with a large data volume of high-precision measurements enabled by next-generation gravitational-wave detectors and advanced astrometry instruments. Cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure surveys will provide complementary constraints on dark matter models with unique small-scale signatures. We lay out the studies of small-scale structures and compact objects as dark matter probes, and summarize the requirements to achieve the goals., Comment: 43 pages, 7 figures

Following up large numbers of candidates in continuous gravitational wave searches presents a challenge, particularly in regard to computational power and the time required to manually scrutinize each of the candidates. It is important to design and test good follow-up procedures that are safe (i.e., minimize false dismissals) and computationally efficient across many search configurations. We investigate two follow-up procedures, or "vetoes," both of which exploit the Doppler modulation predicted in astrophysical signals. In particular, we introduce the concept of using an effective point spread function as part of our veto criteria. We take advantage of a well-established semicoherent search algorithm based on a hidden Markov model to study various search configurations and to generalize the veto criteria by considering the overall veto performance in terms of efficiency and safety. The results can serve as a guideline for follow-up studies in future continuous gravitational wave searches using a hidden Markov model algorithm. The results also apply qualitatively to other semicoherent search algorithms., Comment: 24 pages, 15 figures

Exploring dark matter via observations of extreme astrophysical environments -- defined here as heavy compact objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, as well as supernovae and compact object merger events -- has been a major field of growth since the last Snowmass process. Theoretical work has highlighted the utility of current and near-future observatories to constrain novel dark matter parameter space across the full mass range. This includes gravitational wave instruments and observatories spanning the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio to gamma-rays. While recent searches already provide leading sensitivity to various dark matter models, this work also highlights the need for theoretical astrophysics research to better constrain the properties of these extreme astrophysical systems. The unique potential of these search signatures to probe dark matter adds motivation to proposed next-generation astronomical and gravitational wave instruments., Comment: Contribution to Snowmass 2021 -- CF3. Dark Matter: Cosmic Probes