Session R4: Invited Session: New Stars in Astrophysics

Edward A. Bouchet Award Talk: Theoretical and Observational Consequences of a Parity Violating Universe

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Towards Synchronism Through Dynamic Tides in J0651: the ``Antiresonance'' Locking

In recent years, the Extremely Low Mass White Dwarf (ELM WD) survey has quintupled the number of known close, detached double WD binaries (DWD). The tightest such DWD, SDSS J065133.33+284423.3 (J0651), harbors a He WD eclipsing a C/O WD every $\simeq\,12\,$min. The orbital decay of this source was recently measured to be consistent with general relativistic (GR) radiation. Here we investigate the role of dynamic tides in a J0651-Like binary and we uncover the potentially new phenomenon of ``antiresonance'' locking. In the most probable scenario of an asynchronous binary at birth, we find that dynamic tides play a key role in explaining the measured GR-driven orbital decay, as they lock the system at stable antiresonances with the star's eigenfrequencies. We show how such locking is naturally achieved and how, while locked at an antiresonance, GR drives the evolution of the orbital separation, while dynamic tides act to synchronize the spin of the He WD with the companion's orbital motion, but only on the GR timescale. Given the relevant orbital and spin evolution timescales, the system is clearly on its way to synchronism, if not already synchronized.   

CMB Observations with the South Pole Telescope

I will describe a program of cosmological research centered on using measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to address questions relevant to physics: What is the absolute mass scale of neutrinos? How many species of neutrino-like particles were present in the early Universe? How does gravity behave on cosmological scales? Did inflation occur, and, if so, at what energy scale? A new generation of CMB experiments is targeting these questions, and I will focus on recent results from the South Pole Telescope (SPT). The SPT is a ground-based mm-wave observatory located at the geographic south pole in Antarctica, and in 2011 finished its initial, 2500 square-degree ``SPT-SZ'' survey. The data from this survey provided an unprecedented combination of resolution, area, and sensitivity, and has been used to make ground-breaking measurements of the CMB anisotropy and the gravitational lensing of the CMB. These measurements have, in conjunction with data from the WMAP satellite, led to strong constraints on the number of neutrino-like particle species present in the early universe and the shape of the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations. The SPT-SZ data overlaps with the ongoing Dark Energy Survey (DES) footprint, and the joint dataset will provide new probes of large-scale structure, such as the relative velocities of massive galaxy clusters. In 2012, a new polarization-sensitive camera, SPTpol, was installed on the SPT, and I will summarize its performance and prospects for detecting the B-mode CMB polarization pattern. Finally, I will touch on what will be possible with a third-generation camera, SPT-3G. The leap in sensitivity provided by this camera will yield, for example, a constraint on the sum of the neutrino masses relevant for exploring the neutrino mass hierarchy.