On September 14, 2015 at 09:50:45 UTC the two detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory simultaneously observed a transient gravitational-wave signal. The signal sweeps upwards in frequency from 35 to 250 Hz with a peak gravitational-wave strain of 1.0×10(-21). It matches the waveform predicted by general relativity for the inspiral and merger of a pair of black holes and the ringdown of the resulting single black hole. The signal was observed with a matched-filter signal-to-noise ratio of 24 and a false alarm rate estimated to be less than 1 event per 203,000 years, equivalent to a significance greater than 5.1σ. The source lies at a luminosity distance of 410(-180)(+160)  Mpc corresponding to a redshift z=0.09(-0.04)(+0.03). In the source frame, the initial black hole masses are 36(-4)(+5)M⊙ and 29(-4)(+4)M⊙, and the final black hole mass is 62(-4)(+4)M⊙, with 3.0(-0.5)(+0.5)M⊙c(2) radiated in gravitational waves. All uncertainties define 90% credible intervals. These observations demonstrate the existence of binary stellar-mass black hole systems. This is the first direct detection of gravitational waves and the first observation of a binary black hole merger.

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The Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger

To say that this is the best book on the quantum theory of fields is no praise, since to my knowledge it is the only book on this subject But it is a very good and most useful book The original was written in German and appeared in 1942 This is a translation with some minor changes A few remarks have been added, concerning meson theory and nuclear forces, also footnotes referring to modern work in this field, and finally an appendix on the symmetrization of the energy momentum tensor according to Belinfante Quantum Theory of Fields Prof Gregor Wentzel Translated from the German by Charlotte Houtermans and J M Jauch Pp ix + 224, (New York and London: Interscience Publishers, Inc, 1949) 36s

Quantum Theory of Fields

This program was supported by the the Kavli Foundation, Danish National Research Foundation, the Niels Bohr International Academy, and the DARK Cosmology Centre. The UCSC group is supported in part by NSF grant AST-1518052, the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, generous donations from many individuals through a UCSC Giving Day grant, and from fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (R.J.F.), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation (R.J.F. and E.R.) and the Niels Bohr Professorship from the DNRF (E.R.). AMB acknowledges support from a UCMEXUS-CONACYT Doctoral Fellowship. Support for this work was provided by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grants HST-HF-51348.001 (B.J.S.) and HST-HF-51373.001 (M.R.D.) awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. This paper includes data gathered with the 1 meter Swope and 6.5 meter Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.r (AGILE) The AGILE Team thanks the ASI management, the technical staff at the ASI Malindi ground station, the technical support team at the ASI Space Science Data Center, and the Fucino AGILE Mission Operation Center. AGILE is an ASI space mission developed with programmatic support by INAF and INFN. We acknowledge partial support through the ASI grant No. I/028/12/2. We also thank INAF, Italian Institute of Astrophysics, and ASI, Italian Space Agency.r (ANTARES) The ANTARES Collaboration acknowledges the financial support of: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives (CEA), Commission Europeenne (FEDER fund and Marie Curie Program), Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), IdEx program and UnivEarthS Labex program at Sorbonne Paris Cite (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02), Labex OCEVU (ANR-11-LABX-0060) and the A*MIDEX project (ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02), Region Ile-de-France (DIM-ACAV), Region Alsace (contrat CPER), Region Provence-Alpes-Cite d'Azur, Departement du Var and Ville de La Seyne-sur-Mer, France; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Germany; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Nederlandse organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), the Netherlands; Council of the President of the Russian Federation for young scientists and leading scientific schools supporting grants, Russia; National Authority for Scientific Research (ANCS), Romania;...

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Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star

Stellar structure models in modified theories of gravity: Lessons and challenges

A consistent theory of D → 4 Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

We discuss the presence of ghostly instabilities for metric-affine theories constructed with higher order curvature terms We mainly focus on theories containing only the Ricci tensor and show the crucial role played by the projective symmetry The pathological modes arise from the absence of a pure kinetic term for the projective mode and the non-minimal coupling of a 2-form field contained in the connection, and which can be related to the antisymmetric part of the metric in non-symmetric gravity theories The couplings to matter are considered at length and cannot be used to render the theories stable We discuss different procedures to avoid the ghosts by adding additional constraints We finally argue how these pathologies are expected to be present in general metric-affine theories unless much care is taken in their construction

/pdf/instabilities-in-metric-affine-theories-of-gravity-with-1aetkx11gu.pdf

Instabilities in metric-affine theories of gravity with higher order curvature terms

We disprove the widespread belief that higher order curvature theories of gravity in the metric-affine formalism are generally ghost-free. This is clarified by considering a sub-class of theories constructed only with the Ricci tensor and showing that the non-projectively invariant sector propagates ghost-like degrees of freedom. We also explain how these pathologies can be avoided either by imposing a projective symmetry or additional constraints in the gravity sector. Our results put forward that higher order curvature gravity theories generally remain pathological in the metric-affine (and hybrid) formalisms and highlight the key importance of the projective symmetry and/or additional constraints for their physical viability and, by extension, of general metric-affine theories.

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Ghosts in metric-affine higher order curvature gravity

We attempt to clarify several aspects concerning the recently presented four-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity. We argue that the limiting procedure outlined in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 081301 (2020)] generally involves ill-defined terms in the four dimensional field equations. Potential ways to circumvent this issue are discussed, alongside some remarks regarding specific solutions of the theory. We prove that, although linear perturbations are well behaved around maximally symmetric backgrounds, the equations for second-order perturbations are ill-defined even around a Minkowskian background. Additionally, we perform a detailed analysis of the spherically symmetric solutions, and find that the central curvature singularity can be reached within a finite proper time.

Inconsistencies in four-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

We extend the correspondence between metric-affine Ricci-Based Gravity the- ories and General Relativity (GR) to the case in which the matter sector is represented by linear and nonlinear electromagnetic fields. This complements previous studies focused on fluids and scalar fields. We establish the general algorithm that relates the matter fields in the GR and RBG frames and consider some applications. In particular, we find that the so-called Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld gravity theory coupled to Maxwell electromag- netism is in direct correspondence with GR coupled to Born-Infeld electromagnetism. We comment on the potential phenomenological implications of this relation.

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Ricci-Based Gravity theories and their impact on Maxwell and nonlinear electromagnetic models

/pdf/comment-on-einstein-gauss-bonnet-gravity-in-four-dimensional-pj54odqimj.pdf

Adrià Delhom

Papers

Instabilities in metric-affine theories of gravity with higher order curvature terms

Ghosts in metric-affine higher order curvature gravity

Inconsistencies in four-dimensional Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

Ricci-Based Gravity theories and their impact on Maxwell and nonlinear electromagnetic models

Comment on “Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity in Four-Dimensional Spacetime”