Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 15, 2026
06:22
Stochastic Noise Application for the Assessment of Medial Vestibular Nucleus Neuron Sensitivity In Vitro
Published on: August 28, 2019
5.6K
Stochastic and Resolvable Gravitational Waves from Ultralight Bosons
Richard Brito1, Shrobana Ghosh2, Enrico Barausse3
1Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Am Mühlenberg 1, Potsdam-Golm 14476, Germany.
Physical Review Letters
|January 18, 2018
Summary
Ultralight scalar fields around spinning black holes generate a detectable stochastic gravitational-wave background. This background can constrain axion properties and reveal numerous resolvable sources for future observatories.
Area of Science:
- Astrophysical black hole physics
- Gravitational wave astronomy
- Beyond Standard Model physics
Background:
- Ultralight scalar fields near spinning black holes can become unstable via superradiance.
- This instability forms a bosonic condensate, a potential source of gravitational waves.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compute the stochastic gravitational-wave background from black hole-scalar field systems.
- To assess the detectability of this background with current and future gravitational wave detectors.
- To constrain the mass of ultralight scalar fields (e.g., axions).
Main Methods:
- Numerical solutions of perturbed field equations.
- Astrophysical modeling of black hole populations (massive and stellar-mass).
- Estimation of stochastic gravitational-wave background signals.
Main Results:
- The stochastic background is potentially observable by Advanced LIGO and LISA for specific scalar field mass ranges.
- Existing LIGO O1 data may already exclude axions with masses around 10^-12.5 eV.
- Advanced LIGO and LISA could detect a significant number of resolvable sources.
Conclusions:
- The gravitational-wave background from scalar fields provides a novel probe of fundamental physics.
- Future detectors like LISA can precisely measure scalar field masses or rule out certain parameter spaces.
- Black hole spin measurements can complement gravitational wave data in constraining scalar field properties.
Related Concept Videos
01:16Gravitation
9.1K
In the years before Newton, a general belief prevailed that different laws governed objects in the sky than objects on Earth. When Kepler wrote down the three laws of planetary motion, explaining in detail the geometrical properties of the planetary orbits around the Sun, there was no immediate idea to discern their connection with more fundamental laws. It was Isaac Newton who, in 1665–66, figured out the connection between planetary motion, the motion of the moon around the Earth, and...
9.1K
02:12The Wave Nature of Light
61.7K
The nature of light has been a subject of inquiry since antiquity. In the seventeenth century, Isaac Newton performed experiments with lenses and prisms and was able to demonstrate that white light consists of the individual colors of the rainbow combined together. Newton explained his optics findings in terms of a "corpuscular" view of light, in which light was composed of streams of extremely tiny particles traveling at high speeds according to Newton's laws of motion.
61.7K
01:14Gravitational Potential Energy
26.6K
Potential energy is not just a property of each object, but also a property of the interactions between objects in a chosen system. For each type of interaction present in a system, there is a corresponding type of potential energy. The total potential energy of the system is the sum of the potential energies of all the objects. Potential energy can be classified into two major categories: gravitational potential energy and elastic potential energy. The potential energy associated with a...
26.6K
01:15Newton's Law of Gravitation
17.1K
Our everyday observation tells us that all objects close to the Earth naturally tend to fall to the ground. Early philosophers assumed that this downward force was unique to Earth. By the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) put forward the heliocentric theory, which suggested that Earth and other planets orbited the sun, while the Moon orbited the Earth. However, it was Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who linked these two motions together in the 17th century. He reasoned that the force of...
17.1K
01:27Potential Energy due to Gravitation
8.6K
Since gravitational force is a conservative force, the amount of work done to move an object between two points in the gravitational field in which it resides is independent of the path taken. Thus, similar to the gravitational field, a gravitational potential energy function can be defined, which depends only on spatial coordinates.
Consider a mass gravitationally bound to another object. For example, the Earth is gravitationally bound to the Sun’s gravitational field. The potential...
Consider a mass gravitationally bound to another object. For example, the Earth is gravitationally bound to the Sun’s gravitational field. The potential...
8.6K
01:03Rocket Propulsion in Gravitational Field - II
2.8K
A rocket's velocity in the presence of a gravitational field is decreased by the amount of force exerted by Earth's gravitational field, which opposes the motion of the rocket. If we consider thrust, that is, the force exerted on a rocket by the exhaust gases, then a rocket's thrust is greater in outer space than in the atmosphere or on a launch pad. In fact, gases are easier to expel in a vacuum.
A rocket's acceleration depends on three major factors, consistent with the...
A rocket's acceleration depends on three major factors, consistent with the...
2.8K