TY  - JOUR
AU  - Sanchis-Gual, N.
AU  - del Rio, A.
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023//
TI  - Precessing binary black holes as engines of electromagnetic helicity
T2  - Phys. Rev. D
JO  - Physical Review D
SP  - 044052
EP  - 11pp
VL  - 108
AB  - We show that binary black hole mergers with precessing evolution can potentially excite photons from the quantum vacuum in such a way that total helicity is not preserved in the process. Helicity violation is allowed by quantum fluctuations that spoil the electric-magnetic duality symmetry of the classical Maxwell theory without charges. We show here that precessing binary black hole systems in astrophysics generate a flux of circularly polarized gravitational waves which, in turn, provides the required helical background that triggers this quantum effect. Solving the fully nonlinear Einstein’s equations with numerical relativity we explore the parameter space of binary systems and extract the detailed dependence of the quantum effect with the spins of the two black holes. We also introduce a set of diagrammatic techniques that allows us to predict when a binary black hole merger can or cannot emit circularly polarized gravitational radiation, based on mirror-symmetry considerations. This framework allows to understand and to interpret correctly the numerical results, and to predict the outcomes in potentially interesting astrophysical systems.
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.15534
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.044052
DO  - 10.1103/PhysRevD.108.044052
N1  - exported from refbase (https://references.ific.uv.es/refbase/show.php?record=6092), last updated on Fri, 26 Apr 2024 14:58:47 +0000
ID  - Sanchis-Gual+delRio2023
ER  -