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Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
No full textIntermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−10⁵ M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc⁻³ yr⁻¹ (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc⁻³ yr⁻¹
Shallow distributed faulting in the Imperial Valley, California, USA
No full textIn the tectonically complex Imperial Valley, California (USA), the Imperial fault (IF) is often considered to be the primary fault at the U.S.-Mexico border; however, its strain partitioning and interactions with other faults are not well understood. Despite inferred evidence of other major faults (e.g., seismicity), it is difficult to obtain a holistic view of this system due to anthropogenic surface modifications. To better define the structural configuration of the plate-boundary strain in this region, we collected high-resolution shallow seismic imaging data in the All American Canal, crossing the Imperial, Dixieland, and Michoacán faults. These data image shallow (<25 m) structures on and near the mapped trace of the Imperial fault, as well as the Michoacán fault and adjacent stepover. Integration of our data with nearby terrestrial cores provides age constraints on Imperial fault deformation. These data suggest that the Michoacán fault, unmapped in the United States, is active and likely produces dynamic or off-fault deformation within its stepover to the Dixieland fault. Together, these data support more strain partitioning than previously documented in this region
Connections distributed within 3 μm of chromosomes are necessary and sufficient for the kinetochore-fiber’s robust anchorage in the mammalian spindle
No full textIn mammalian cells, kinetochore-fibers are responsible for moving chromosomes within the spindle. To perform this task, they must generate and respond to forces while maintaining their connection to the spindle. Yet, how and where along their length they are anchored in the spindle, and which connections are necessary and sufficient remains unknown. Recent advances using microneedle manipulation opened new avenues in directly challenging kinetochore-fiber anchorage and revealed that anchorage near chromosomes restricts kinetochore-fiber pivoting there. To determine the components of this anchorage necessary and sufficient to locally restrict pivoting and maintain kinetochore-fiber orientation in the spindle center under force, we develop a theoretical framework using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. We determine that highly localized anchorage just at the chromosome end fails to preserve kinetochore-fiber orientation in the spindle center. Similarly, global uniform anchorage fails to capture the localized resistance to pivoting by uniformly preserving structure everywhere. Instead, we show that local anchorage distributed within 3 μm of chromosomes is both necessary and sufficient for kinetochore-fibers to locally preserve their orientation under force. Together, our work indicates that while kinetochore-fibers have connections all along their length, not all connections are mechanically equivalent. Our model establishes the relationship between spindle architecture and the mechanics underlying kinetochore-fiber anchorage, and can be expanded to diverse spindle architectures across evolution
Simulated multispectral temperature and atmospheric composition retrievals for the JPL GEO-IR Sounder
No full textSatellite measurements enable quantification of atmospheric temperature, humidity, wind fields, and trace gas vertical profiles. The majority of current instruments operate on polar orbiting satellites and either in the thermal and mid-wave or in the shortwave infrared spectral regions. We present a new multispectral instrument concept for improved measurements from geostationary orbit (GEO) with sensitivity to the boundary layer. The JPL GEO-IR Sounder, which is an imaging Fourier transform spectrometer, uses a wide spectral range (1–15.4 µm) encompassing both reflected solar and thermal emission bands to improve sensitivity to the lower troposphere and boundary layer. We perform retrieval simulations for both clean and polluted scenarios that also encompass different temperature and humidity profiles. The results illustrate the benefits of combining shortwave and thermal infrared measurements. In particular, the former adds information in the boundary layer, while the latter helps to separate near-surface and mid-tropospheric variability. The performance of the JPL GEO-IR Sounder is similar to or better than currently operational instruments. The proposed concept is expected to improve weather forecasting as well as severe storm tracking and forecasting and also benefit local and global air quality and climate research
MeqSilhouette v2: spectrally resolved polarimetric synthetic data generation for the event horizon telescope
No full textWe present MeqSilhouette v2.0 (MeqSv2), a fully polarimetric, time-and frequency-resolved synthetic data generation software for simulating millimetre (mm) wavelength very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations with heterogeneous arrays. Synthetic data are a critical component in understanding real observations, testing calibration and imaging algorithms, and predicting performance metrics of existing or proposed sites. MeqSv2 applies physics-based instrumental and atmospheric signal corruptions constrained by empirically derived site and station parameters to the data. The new version is capable of applying instrumental polarization effects and various other spectrally resolved effects using the Radio Interferometry Measurement Equation (RIME) formalism and produces synthetic data compatible with calibration pipelines designed to process real data. We demonstrate the various corruption capabilities of MeqSv2 using different arrays, with a focus on the effect of complex bandpass gains on closure quantities for the EHT at 230 GHz. We validate the frequency-dependent polarization leakage implementation by performing polarization self-calibration of synthetic EHT data using PolSolve. We also note the potential applications for cm-wavelength VLBI array analysis and design and future directions
Tidal Evolution and Diffusive Growth During High-eccentricity Planet Migration: Revisiting the Eccentricity Distribution of Hot Jupiters
No full textHigh-eccentricity tidal migration is a potential formation channel for hot Jupiters. During this process, the planetary f-mode may experience a phase of diffusive growth, allowing its energy to quickly build up to large values. In Yu et al., we demonstrated that nonlinear mode interactions between a parent f-mode and daughter f- and p-modes expand the parameter space over which the diffusive growth of the parent is triggered. We extend that study by incorporating (1) the angular momentum transfer between the orbit and the mode, and consequently the evolution of the pericenter distance; (2) a prescription to regulate the nonlinear frequency shift at high parent mode energies; and (3) dissipation of the parent's energy due to both turbulent convective damping of the daughter modes and strongly nonlinear wave-breaking events. The new ingredients allow us to follow the coupled evolution of the mode and orbit over ≳10⁴ yr, covering the diffusive evolution from its onset to its termination. We find that the semimajor axis shrinks by a factor of nearly 10 over 10⁴ yr, corresponding to a tidal quality factor Q ~ 10. The f-mode's diffusive growth terminates while the eccentricity is still high, at around e = 0.8–0.95. Using these results, we revisit the eccentricity distribution of proto-hot Jupiters. We estimate that less than 1 proto-HJ with eccentricity > 0.9 should be expected in Kepler's data once the diffusive regime is accounted for, explaining the observed paucity of this population
Mixing of Condensable Constituents with H–He during the Formation and Evolution of Jupiter
No full textSimulations of Jupiter's formation are presented that incorporate mixing of H–He with denser material entering the planet as solids. Heavy compounds and gas mix substantially when the planet becomes roughly as massive as Earth, because incoming planetesimals can fully vaporize. Supersaturation of vaporized silicates causes the excess to sink as droplets, but water remains at higher altitudes. Because the mean molecular weight decreases rapidly outward, some of the compositional inhomogeneities produced during formation can survive for billions of years. After 4.57 Gyr, our Jupiter model retains compositional gradients; proceeding outward, one finds (i) an inner heavy-element core, the outer part derived from hot supersaturated rain-out; (ii) a composition-gradient region, containing most of the heavy elements, where H–He abundance increases outward, reaching about 0.9 mass fraction at 0.3 of the radius, with silicates enhanced relative to water in the lower parts and depleted in the upper parts; (iii) a uniform-composition region (neglecting He immiscibility) that is enriched over protosolar and contains most of the planet’s mass; and (iv) an outer region where cloud formation (condensation) of heavy constituents occurs. This radial compositional profile has heavy elements more broadly distributed than predicted by classical formation models but less diluted than suggested by Juno-constrained gravity models. The compositional gradients in the region containing the bulk of the heavy elements prevent convection, in both our models and those fitting current gravity, resulting in a hot interior where much of the accretion energy remains trapped
Local production, downward and regional transport aggravated surface ozone pollution during the historical orange-alert large-scale ozone episode in eastern China
No full textIncreasing severe and persistent ozone pollution in China has resulted in serious harm to human health in recent years, yet the precise pollution sources are poorly known because there is few knowledge on large-scale extreme ozone episodes. Here, we studied the formation of the historical orange-alert regional ozone episode in eastern China on 6 June, 2021, by combining process analysis, integrated source apportionment modelling, and chemical and meteorological data. Results show that during the pollution episode, 94% of cities in eastern China suffered ozone pollution, and 39% had daily maximum 8-h average ozone concentrations higher than 100 ppb. This is explained by favorable local ozone formation and transports provided by the prevailing northwestern winds in the upper air, and by sinking atmospheric motions favoring the persistence of high surface ozone concentrations. During daytime, local photochemical production induced an ozone increase of 0.3–28.4 ppb h⁻¹ and vertical transport induced an ozone increase of 0.4–56.1 ppb h⁻¹. As a consequence, vertical downward transport of ozone generated in the upper air by photochemical reactions aggravated surface ozone pollution. Surface ozone concentrations include 25.8–53.9% of ozone from local provincial emissions, 0–42.6% of ozone from inter-regional transports from neighboring regions, 4.6–23.1% of ozone from outer-regional transport, and 13.6–52.9% of ozone from boundary conditions in the selected cities. Overall, our findings show that favorable meteorological conditions promoted the chemical productions of ozone on the surface and at high altitudes, thus resulting in this heavy ozone pollution. In addition, regional and vertical downward transports of aloft ozone further aggravated the surface ozone pollution, leading to the large-scale extreme ozone pollution episode
Combinatorial optimization with physics-inspired graph neural networks
No full textCombinatorial optimization problems are pervasive across science and industry. Modern deep learning tools are poised to solve these problems at unprecedented scales, but a unifying framework that incorporates insights from statistical physics is still outstanding. Here we demonstrate how graph neural networks can be used to solve combinatorial optimization problems. Our approach is broadly applicable to canonical NP-hard problems in the form of quadratic unconstrained binary optimization problems, such as maximum cut, minimum vertex cover, maximum independent set, as well as Ising spin glasses and higher-order generalizations thereof in the form of polynomial unconstrained binary optimization problems. We apply a relaxation strategy to the problem Hamiltonian to generate a differentiable loss function with which we train the graph neural network and apply a simple projection to integer variables once the unsupervised training process has completed. We showcase our approach with numerical results for the canonical maximum cut and maximum independent set problems. We find that the graph neural network optimizer performs on par or outperforms existing solvers, with the ability to scale beyond the state of the art to problems with millions of variables
Quantum optimization of maximum independent set using Rydberg atom arrays
No full textRealizing quantum speedup for practically relevant, computationally hard problems is a central challenge in quantum information science. Using Rydberg atom arrays with up to 289 qubits in two spatial dimensions, we experimentally investigate quantum algorithms for solving the maximum independent set problem. We use a hardware-efficient encoding associated with Rydberg blockade, realize closed-loop optimization to test several variational algorithms, and subsequently apply them to systematically explore a class of graphs with programmable connectivity. We find that the problem hardness is controlled by the solution degeneracy and number of local minima, and we experimentally benchmark the quantum algorithm’s performance against classical simulated annealing. On the hardest graphs, we observe a superlinear quantum speedup in finding exact solutions in the deep circuit regime and analyze its origins