380 citations · 1.4k across the 22 of their papers we have counts for
22 papers
Finite Populations & Finite Time: The Non-Gaussianity of a Gravitational Wave Background
William G. Lamb, Jeremy M. Wachter, Andrea Mitridate +5
Strong evidence for an isotropic, Gaussian gravitational wave background (GWB) has been found by multiple pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). The GWB is expected to be sourced by a finite…
Deep Neural Emulation of the Supermassive Black-hole Binary Population
Nima Laal, Stephen R. Taylor, Luke Zoltan Kelley +13
While supermassive black-hole (SMBH)-binaries are not the only viable source for the low-frequency gravitational wave background (GWB) signal evidenced by the most recent pulsar ti…
More accurate gravitational wave backgrounds from cosmic strings
Jeremy M. Wachter, Ken D. Olum, Jose J. Blanco-Pillado
We derive a general procedure for calculating the gravitational wave background (GWB) from cosmic string loops whose typical shape evolves over time, as in gravitational backreacti…
Numerical gravitational backreaction on cosmic string loops from simulation
Jeremy M. Wachter, Ken D. Olum, Jose J. Blanco-Pillado +2
We report on the results of performing computational gravitational backreaction on cosmic string loops taken from a network simulation. The principal effect of backreaction is to s…
Gravitational waves from cosmic strings in LISA: reconstruction pipeline and physics interpretation
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Yanou Cui, Sachiko Kuroyanagi +6
We initiate the LISA template databank for stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds sourced by cosmic strings. We include two templates, an analytical template, which enables more…
Labor-based grading practices in the physics classroom
Jeremy M. Wachter
I describe the assessment framework of labor-based contract grading (LBCG). In a labor-based grading scheme, the time and effort ("labor") a student spends on an assignment determi…
Waveform Modelling for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
LISA Consortium Waveform Working Group, Niayesh Afshordi, Sarp Akçay +144
LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, will usher in a new era in gravitational-wave astronomy. As the first anticipated space-based gravitational-wave detector, it will exp…
The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Constraints on Supermassive Black Hole Binaries from the Gravitational Wave Background
Gabriella Agazie, Akash Anumarlapudi, Anne M. Archibald +111
The NANOGrav 15-year data set shows evidence for the presence of a low-frequency gravitational-wave background (GWB). While many physical processes can source such low-frequency gr…
Cosmology with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
Pierre Auclair, David Bacon, Tessa Baker +177
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) has two scientific objectives of cosmological focus: to probe the expansion rate of the universe, and to understand stochastic gravita…
Comparison of cosmic string and superstring models to NANOGrav 12.5-year results
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Ken D. Olum, Jeremy M. Wachter
We compare the spectrum of the stochastic gravitational wave background produced in several models of cosmic strings with the common-spectrum process recently reported by NANOGrav.…
Universal Class of Type-IIB Flux Vacua with Analytic Mass Spectrum
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Kepa Sousa, Mikel A. Urkiola +1
We report on a new class of flux vacua generically present in Calabi-Yau compactifications of type-IIB string theory. At these vacua, the mass spectrum of the complete axio-dilaton…
Towards a complete mass spectrum of type-IIB flux vacua at large complex structure
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Kepa Sousa, Mikel A. Urkiola +1
The large number of moduli fields arising in a generic string theory compactification makes a complete computation of the low energy effective theory infeasible. A common strategy…
Probing the gravitational wave background from cosmic strings with LISA
Pierre Auclair, Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Daniel G. Figueroa +8
Cosmic string networks offer one of the best prospects for detection of cosmological gravitational waves (GWs). The combined incoherent GW emission of a large number of string loop…
Energy-conservation constraints on cosmic string loop production and distribution functions
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Ken D. Olum, Jeremy M. Wachter
A network of cosmic strings would lead to gravitational waves which may be detected by pulsar timing or future interferometers. The details of the gravitational wave signal depend…
Gravitational backreaction simulations of simple cosmic string loops
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Ken D. Olum, Jeremy M. Wachter
We present the results of computational gravitational backreaction on simple models of cosmic string loops. These results give us insight into the general behavior of cusps and kin…
Racetrack Potentials and the de Sitter Swampland Conjectures
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Mikel A. Urkiola, Jeremy M. Wachter
We show that one can find de Sitter critical points (saddle points) in models of flux compactification of Type IIB String Theory without any uplifting terms and in the presence of…
Gravitational back-reaction near cosmic string kinks and cusps
Jose J. Blanco-Pillado, Ken D. Olum, Jeremy M. Wachter
We find the leading-order effect of gravitational back-reaction on cosmic strings for points near kinks and cusps. Near a kink, the effect diverges as the inverse cube root of the…
Approximating tunneling rates in multi-dimensional field spaces
Ali Masoumi, Ken D. Olum, Jeremy M. Wachter
Quantum mechanics makes the otherwise stable vacua of a theory metastable through the nucleation of bubbles of the new vacuum. This in turn causes a first order phase transition. T…
Gravitational back reaction on piecewise linear cosmic string loops
Jeremy M. Wachter, Ken D. Olum
We calculate the metric and affine connection due to a piecewise linear cosmic string loop, and the effect of gravitational back reaction for the Garfinkle-Vachaspati loop with fou…
Gravitational smoothing of kinks on cosmic string loops
Jeremy M. Wachter, Ken D. Olum
We analyze the effect of gravitational back reaction on cosmic string loops with kinks, which is an important determinant of the shape, and thus the potential observability, of str…
Predicting the Influence of Plate Geometry on the Eddy Current Pendulum
Catherine Weigel, Jeremy M. Wachter, Paul Wagoner +1
We quantitatively analyze a familiar classroom demonstration, Van Waltenhofen's eddy current pendulum, to predict the damping effect for a variety of plate geometries from first pr…
Electromagnetic back-reaction from currents on a straight string
Jeremy M. Wachter, Ken D. Olum
Charge carriers moving at the speed of light along a straight, superconducting cosmic string carry with them a logarithmically divergent slab of electromagnetic field energy. Thus…