This dissertation is an observational exploration of the exciting physics that can be enabled by high-speed photometric monitoring of extremely low-mass (< 0.25 M[subscript sun symbol]) white dwarf stars, which are found in some of the most compact binaries known. It includes the cleanest indirect detection of gravitational waves at visible wavelengths, the discovery of pulsations in He-core WDs, the strongest evidence for excited p-mode pulsations in a WD, the discovery of the first tidally distorted WDs and their use to constrain the low-end of the WD mass-radius relationship, and the strongest cases of Doppler beaming observed in a binary system. It is the result of the more than 220 nights spent at McDonald Observatory doing high-speed photometry with the Argos instrument on the 2.1 m Otto Struve telescope, which has led to a number of additional exciting results, including the discovery of an intermediate timescale in the evolution of cooling DA WDs and the discovery of the most massive pulsating WD, which should have an ONe-core and should be highly crystallized. / text

In this thesis, the dynamics and coupling in the middle atmosphere over the Southern Hemisphere are investigated using SuperDARN high frequency (HF) radar wind data, satellites, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), the South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE) imaging riometer and models. In particular, the study focuses on the unprecedented 2002 major stratospheric warming and its role in coupling the middle atmosphere. The dynamics of the middle atmosphere is investigated in terms of mean wind, temperature, gravity waves and planetary wave activity. Studying the middle atmospheric thermal structure over Southern Africa is an important activity to improve the understanding of atmospheric dynamics of this region. Observation of a middle atmosphere thermal structure over Durban (29.9 S, 31.0 E, South Africa) using LIDAR data collected from April 1999 to July 2004 (277 nights), including closest overpasses of the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) and Halogen Occultation Experiments (HALOE) satellites, and the COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere (CIRA-86) are presented in this thesis. The observations from the LIDAR instrument, satellites and CIRA-86 exhibit the presence of annual oscillation in the stratosphere, whereas in the mesosphere the semi-annual oscillation seems to dominate the annual oscillation at some levels. The stratopause is observed in the height range of 40-55 km for all the instruments, with the stratopause temperatures being 260- 270 K for the LIDAR, 250-260 K for the SABER, and 250-270 K for the HALOE. Data from the LIDAR, satellites and CIRA-86 model indicate almost the same thermal structure of the middle atmosphere over Durban. This indicates a good agreement between LIDAR, satellites and the CIRA-86 model. Mean wind and planetary waves are investigated on a climatological scale in this study. Mean wind observations from the SANAE SuperDARN HF radar are compared with observations from Halley SuperDARN HF radar. There is a good agreement between the observations from the two stations both in the zonal and meridional wind components. Zonal wind is observed to be consistently larger than the meridional wind. The zonal wind is also consistently more eastward at both stations with maxima occurring during the solstice months. High latitude summer zonal mean ow at 94 km is observed to be weaker and more variable compared to the eastward winter mean circulation owing to tropospherically forced planetary waves propagating through the middle atmosphere. The zonal mean wind shows greater seasonal variability than does the meridional mean wind. This seasonal behaviour is reasonably well understood in terms of the upward propagating planetary waves and gravity waves interacting with the mean ow. The Coriolis force also plays an important role in the case of meridional wind component. The climatology of planetary waves both in the zonal and meridional wind components indicates an ampli cation of planetary waves of shorter wavenumbers (s = 3) in the winter months. During summer, long period oscillations (e.g. >10 days) which are dominant in winter disappear, and oscillations with shorter period (e.g. <10 days) become dominant. vi There is a strong planetary wave coupling between the stratosphere and mesosphere-lower thermospheric (MLT) during the year 2002 winter season, whilst the coupling is observed to be relatively weak during the other years. The strong planetary wave coupling in 2002 is understandable because during this year the middle atmosphere winter months were characterised by strong planetary wave activity which led to the rst ever detection of the SSW in the Southern Hemisphere. In the year 2002 winter period the mean circulation in the stratosphere is characterized by a series of planetary wave events that weakened the polar vortex and triggered the sudden stratospheric warming in late September. In particular, in the stratosphere there is a presence of a quasi 10-day eastward propagating planetary wave of wavenumber s=1, while in the MLT a quasi 14-day eastward propagating planetary wave of wavenumber s=1 is observed to be dominant. The Eliassen Palm ux (E-P) ux shows that strong planetary wave activity observed in the middle atmosphere originates from the troposphere. Zonal winds at the MLT show reversal approximately 7 days before the reversal at stratosphere, indicating a downwards propagation of circulation disturbance in the middle atmosphere. Eastward zonal winds dominate the winter MLT, but during the 2002 winter there are many periods of westward winds observed compared to the other years. The SABER vertical temperature pro les indicate cooling of the MLT region during the SSW occurrence. Gravity wave horizontal phase velocities and horizontal wavelengths as seen by the SANAE imaging riometer are observed to reduce dramatically over SANAE during the occurrence of the stratospheric warming. The disturbance of the middle atmosphere during the Southern Hemisphere stratospheric warming in year 2002 winter preconditioned the region for gravity waves to propagate upward to the MLT. The potential energy of these gravity waves is observed to increase with height up until they reach the lower thermosphere. At the MLT they lose their energy, thus depositing their momentum, leading to the MLT cooling and mean wind reversal. Keywords: SSW, Planetary waves, Gravity waves, Stratosphere, MLT, SuperDARN radar, Mean wind, Temperature, Middle atmosphere, SANAE. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2012.

A network of laser interferometer gravitational waves detectors spread across the globe is currently running and steadily improving. After complex data analysis from the output signal of the present detectors, astrophysical results begin to emerge with upper limits on gravitational wave sources. So far, however no direct detection has been announced. To increase the sensitivity of current detectors, a second generation of interferometers is planned which will make gravitational wave astronomy a reality within one decade. The advanced generation of interferometers will represent a substantial upgrade from current detectors. Especially, very high optical power will circulate in the arm cavities in order to reduce by one order of magnitude the shot noise limited sensitivity in high frequency. However, the theoretical shot noise limit will only be achieved after implementation of complex thermal lensing compensation schemes. Thermal lensing is direct consequence of the residual optical absorption inside the substrate and coating of the test masses and could have tragic consequences for the functionality of the interferometer. The Australian Consortium for Interferometric Gravitational Astronomy (ACIGA) in collaboration with LIGO will run a series of high optical power tests to understand the characteristics and effects of thermal lensing. During these tests, techniques to compensate thermal lensing will be experimented. This thesis mainly focused on the first high optical power test in Gingin, Australia. The first test will consist of a Fabry Perot cavity with the sapphire substrate of the input mirror inside the cavity. Due to the high optical circulating power a strong convergent thermal lens will appear in the input mirror substrate. Because of the presence of the thermal lens inside the cavity, the size of the cavity waist will be reduced and the cavity circulating power will decrease. Simulations using higher order mode expansion and FFT propagation code were completed to estimate ways to compensate strong thermal lensing for the Gingin first test. The term `strong thermal lensing? is used because the thermal lens focal length is comparable to the design focal length of the optical components. The expected performance of a fused silica compensation plate is presented and advantages and limits of this method are discussed. Experimental results on small scale actuators which can potentially compensate thermal lensing are detailed. The knowledge gained from these experiments was valuable to design the real scale compensation plate which was used in the first Gingin test. This test was carried at the end of 2005. The thermal lens due to 1 kW of optical power circulating in the sapphire substrate was successfully compensated using a fused silica plate. Yet, thermal lensing compensation may only be required for room temperature advanced interferometer. Indeed, we showed that cooling the interferometer mirror to cryogenic temperature can eliminate the thermal lensing problem and also substantially decrease the mirror thermal noise.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2004. / Adviser: Larry H. Ford. Submitted to the Dept. of Physics. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-120). Access restricted to members of the Tufts University community. Also available via the World Wide Web;

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Western Australia, 2007.

Thesis (PhD)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Neil J. Cornish. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-140).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-139). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-139). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2006. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-183). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Orientador: Anderson Campos Fauth / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T00:09:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tavares_DenisBorgarelli_M.pdf: 5623442 bytes, checksum: 17583c9607ed6e94cf631816f4ccb01f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Um dos fenômenos previstos por Einstein na dedução da relatividade geral foi a existência de pequenas perturbações da métrica que ele nomeou de ondas gravitacionais.Essas ondas ao atravessarem a matéria fazem com que a mesma oscile de acordo com a polarização da onda gravitacional.Esta é a única previsão importante da Relatividade Geral que ainda não foi comprovada completamente.O pequeno sinal gerado pela passagem de uma onda gravitacional em comparação com os ruídos existentes no sistema de detecção torna a sua detecção direta um dos principais desafios da ciência moderna.Neste trabalho estudamos o ruído gerado por raios cósmicos na antena gravitacional Mario Schenberg,localizada na cidade de São Paulo.Medidas do fluxo de múons e hádrons isolados realizadas no hemisfério norte foram utilizadas para calcular o fluxo esperado dessas partículas na cidade de São Paulo.O cálculo da energia depositada no detector de ondas gravitacionais pelos raios cósmicos foi realizado através de simulações de Monte arlo utilizando o Geant4.A passagem de múons e prótons,com diversas energias e alguns ângulos de incidência,pelo prédio e pela esfera ressonante da antena gravitacional,foi simulada.Desenvolvemos um modelo termo-acústico, denominado de multiponto,adequado para calcular as energias depositadas nos modos normais de vibração da esfera a partir da energia depositada na esfera por partículas elementares.om esses resultados calculamos a taxa esperada de sinal de raios cósmicos no principal modo de detecção de ondas gravitacionais,nl=12,do detector Mario Schenberg para temperaturas de operação Tnoise entre 10 -5 e 10 -7 K.Os resultados obtidos mostraram que para a sensibilidade projetada para 4,2K do detector Mário Schenberg a taxa de sinais devido aos raios cósmicos é muito pequena,sendo da ordem de 5 eventos por dia.Porém,quando for atingido o limite quântico,será preciso uma análise mais detalhada do sinal de saída da antena,já que o número de partículas esperado aumenta consideravelmente, alcançando cerca de 250 sinais por dia / Abstract: One of the phenomena predicted by Einstein in the derivation of general relativity is the existence of small perturbations of the metric that he named gravitational waves.As they travel through space oscillates the space-time according to its polarization.This is the only major prediction of general relativity not yet proven completely.The small signal generated by the passage of a gravitational wave compared to the noise in the system of detection makes their direct detection one challenge of modern science.In this paper we study the noise generated by cosmic rays in the gravitational antenna Mario Schenberg,located in the city of Sao Paulo.Single muons and hadrons flux measurements held in the northern hemisphere were used to calculate the expected flux of these particles in the city of Sao Paulo. The calculation of the energy deposited in the detector of gravitational waves from cosmic rays was performed by Monte arlo simulations using Geant4.The transport of muons and protons,with several energy and some different angles of incidence,across the building and the resonant sphere was simulated.We developed a thermo-acoustic model,called multi-point,suitable for calculating the energy deposited in the normal modes from the energy deposited on the sphere by elementary particles. With these results we calculate the expected rate of cosmic ray signals in the main detection mode of gravitational waves,nl =12,of the Mario Schenberg detector,for temperatures Tnoise between 10 -5 and 10 -7 K.The results showed for the designed for 4.2 K sensitivity of the Mario Schenberg detector that the rate of signals due to cosmic rays is very small,being around 5 events per day.However,when it will reach the quantum limit will be needed a more detailed analysis of the antenna signal output,since the expected number of cosmic ray noise increases considerably,reaching about 250 signals per day / Mestrado / Física das Particulas Elementares e Campos / Mestre em Física