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# Astrometry of the 𝜔 Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Walker (W94 (1994); hereafter W94) presented ground-based $`BV`$ (Johnson) $`RI`$ (Kron-Cousins) photometry of the Harris et al. (H93 (1993); hereafter H93) Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide-Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC) calibration field in the Galactic globular cluster $`\omega `$ Centauri (=NGC 5139=C 1323-1472). This small (100″$`\times `$100″) field is located 13.2 arcmin southwest of the center of $`\omega `$ Cen at 13h 25m 37s -47° 35′ 38″ (epoch J2000.0) \[see Fig. 1 (Plate 59) of H93, Figs. 1 and 2 of W94\]. Although this field has been observed over 1100 times with the HST, there is no astrometry available for the W94 stars in the published literature. In an effort to encourage various ongoing WFPC2 calibration efforts, I now present astrometry (J2000.0) of the W94 stars in the $`\omega `$ Cen HST calibration field on the International Celestial Reference Frame.

## 2 THE HARRIS ET AL. (1993) STARS

The first step of the astrometric calibration of the W94 stars in the $`\omega `$ Cen HST calibration field is to identify which H93 stars given in Table 4 of W94 are present on a WFPC2 observation of that field.

Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  is the combination of all the stars in Table 4 of W94 with $`x`$ and $`y`$ CCD positions along with their astrometry as given in Table 1 of H93. Columns 1–7 of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  are from Table 4 of W94; columns 8 and 9 give the right ascensions and declinations (J2000.0) as listed in Table 1 of H93; column 10 is the identification number given in Table 5 of W94.

I determined a plate solution for the W94 observations using the data in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  and the iraf ccmap task. A simple linear model in $`x`$ and $`y`$ was fitted (6 unknowns) to a tangent sky projection geometry. The ccmap fit results are presented in the first section of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . Column 1 of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  gives information about the input positions and astrometry; column 2 gives the number of stars in the input dataset; columns 3 and 4 gives the fit solution for the plate scale in units of arcsec per pixel (arcsec px-1); columns 5 and 6 gives the fit solutions for axis rotation in degrees; columns 7 and 8 gives the fit rms for the standard astrometric coordinates $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$ in units of arcsec.

Walker states that the size of his pixels was 0.38 arcsec. This agrees well with the fitted plate scale of 0.39 arcsec px-1 given in the first section of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . We see in Fig. 1 of W94 that the orientation of the W94 data is North to the left (low values of $`x`$) with East at the bottom (low values of $`y`$). This agrees well with the fitted axis rotations of $``$88° and $``$268° given in the first section of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . This suggests that the CCD camera used by Walker was just slightly out of alignment from a perfect East-West orientation which would have given values of 90° and 270°, respectively, for axis rotation. The respective fit rms values for the standard astrometric coordinates $`\xi `$ and $`\eta `$ was only 73.0 and 40.7 milliarcsec (mas) for the first fit with all 22 stars in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ; a smaller subset of 12 stars improves the respective rms fits values to 21.3 and 33.0 mas.

I chose two WFPC2 exposures, U4PH0101R.C0H (14-s F814W) and U4PH0102R.C0H (100-s F814W), which observed the $`\omega `$ Cen HST calibration field with the WF2 aperture (Biretta et al. biretta\_et\_al\_1996 (1996)) at the same position and same roll angle. These observations were secured as part of the HST Cycle 7 WFPC2 calibration program CAL/WF2 7929 (PI: Casertano) and were placed in the public data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute on 1998 March 31. The datasets were recalibrated at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre and retrieved electronically using a guest account which was established for this purpose.

The astrometric calibration of the W94 stars began by identifying which of the H93 stars in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  were present on the WF2 section of WFPC2 observation U4PH0101R.C0H. This was accomplished by applying the previously derived plate solutions to Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  using the iraf cctran task. Even the first fit with all 22 H93 stars produced a plate solution which allowed for the unambiguous identification of the H93 stars present on the WF2 section of this 14-s WFPC2 observation. Some of the H93 stars in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  (e.g. H93 star 917 = W94 star 30) do not appear on the WF2 section of this WFPC2 observation; some are probable ground-based blends (e.g. H93 star 1368 = W94 star 23); some have WFPC2 stellar images are distorted by WFPC2 CCD defects (e.g. H93 star 1200 = W94 star 33); and some are so bright that they show diffraction spikes even on a short 14-s exposure (e.g. H93 star 1629 = W94 star 1).

The following list of 12 H93 stars is a clean subset of Table 1 which produced the best plate solution of the first section of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  with rms fitting errors of $`\sigma _\xi =21.3`$ mas (0.055 px) and $`\sigma _\eta =33.0`$ mas (0.085 px) : 903, 1035, 1056, 1063, 1249, 1461, 1462, 1512, 1522, 1565, 1655, 1686. This fit had a plate scale which was identical in both directions (0.388 arcsec px-1) with axis rotation values of 88.056° and 268.079°.

## 3 RELATIVE ASTROMETRY OF THE WALKER (1994) STARS

The next step of the astrometric calibration of the W94 stars in the $`\omega `$ Cen HST calibration field is to obtain relative astrometry of all the stars in Table 5 of W94.

Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  gives the W94 $`x`$ and $`y`$ CCD positions and the relative astrometry of the clean subset of 12 H93 stars identified in the previous section. Columns 1–4 of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  are from Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ; columns 7 and 8 give the $`x`$ and $`y`$ positions of these stars on the WF2 section of the WFPC2 observation U4PH0101R.C0H as determined using the iraf imexamine task; columns 5 and 6 give the right ascensions and declinations (J2000.0) as determined with the stsdas metric task using the U4PH0101R.C0H observation with the WF2 CCD positions given in columns 7 and 8.

I determined a plate solution for the W94 observations using ccmap with the data in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . A simple linear model in $`x`$ and $`y`$ was fitted (6 unknowns) to a tangent sky projection geometry. The ccmap fit results are presented in the second section of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . This plate solution had rms fitting errors of $`\sigma _\xi =20.3`$ mas (0.052 px) and $`\sigma _\eta =22.3`$ mas (0.058 px); fitted plate scales of 0.387 arcsec px-1 for both $`x`$ and $`y`$; and axis rotation values of 88.536° and 268.583°. Note that this result is nearly identical to that of the best plate solution derived in the previous section.

I determined relative astrometry (J2000.0) for all of the W94 stars by using cctran with this plate solution and the $`x`$ and $`y`$ CCD positions given in Table 5 of W94. Figure 1 shows the W94 stars (circles) which are present on the WF2 section of the 100-s WFPC2 U4PH0102R.C0H observation; the plotted positions of these W94 stars was determined with the stsdas invmetric task. The two WFPC2 observations, U4PH0101R.C0H and U4PH0102R.C0H, have identical astrometry; I used the deeper observation in Fig. 1 in order to better display the location of the faintest W94 stars.

## 4 ASTROMETRY OF THE WALKER (1994) STARS ON THE ICRF

The final step of the astrometric calibration of the W94 stars in the $`\omega `$ Cen HST calibration field is to place the relative astrometry of the W94 stars on the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF)111The Hipparcos catalog to the non-specialist..

The plate solution derived in the previous section is ultimately based on the HST Guide Star Catalog which is known to have stars with large positional errors. I demonstrate below that the plate solution determined in the previous section systematically deviates from the ICRF (J2000.0) by about 1.1 arcsec.

I used the USNO-A2.0 finder chart website222http://ftp.nofs.navy.mil/data/fchpix/ to find the 97 USNO-A2.0 (Monet et al. monet\_et\_al\_1998 (1998)) astrometric catalog stars within a 2′$`\times `$2′ box centered on the field center of the $`\omega `$ Cen HST calibration field (see Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ). Columns 2 and 3 of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  give the right ascensions and declinations (J2000.0) on the International Celestial Reference Frame (ICRF); column 4 gives the red plate magnitude; column 1 gives my identification number for these nearby USNO-A2.0 stars.

Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  combines the W94 $`x`$ and $`y`$ CCD positions with astrometry from the USNO-A2.0 catalog for 20 W94 stars with probable USNO-A2.0 counterparts. Columns 1–3 of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  are from Table 5 of W94; column 6 gives the my identification number of the USNO-A2.0 star in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  which I associate with the W94 star; columns 4–5 give the right ascensions and declinations (J2000.0) given in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. .

I determined plate solutions for the W94 observations using the data in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  and the ccmap task. A simple linear model in $`x`$ and $`y`$ was fitted (6 unknowns) to a tangent sky projection geometry. The ccmap fit results are presented in the third section of Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. . The plate solution with 20 W94 stars had rms fitting errors of $`\sigma _\xi =280`$ mas (0.72 px) and $`\sigma _\eta =467`$ mas (1.2 px). The fitting error for $`\eta `$ is considerably larger than the nominal 250 mas positional error for the USNO-A2.0 catalog. The plate solution based on a unambiguous subset of 12 W94 stars had rms fitting errors of $`\sigma _\xi =225`$ mas (0.58 px) and $`\sigma _\eta =248`$ mas (0.64 px) which does agree with the nominal USNO-A2.0 positional errors.

The plate solution based on Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  predicts a position for W94 star 2 (= H93 star 1438) of 13h 25m 35 $`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$869 -47° 35′ 27 $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$66 (J2000.0). I associate this star with the 38th star in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  which has the USNO-A2.0 catalog position of 13h 25m 35 $`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$9327 -47° 35′ 28 $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$6580 (J2000.0). The difference between these positions in right ascension and declination are $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha _{2000}=0\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}0637`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta _{2000}=0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}92`$, respectfully, giving an angular separation of $``$1.12 arcsec.

Observing that the USNO-A2.0 stars in Fig. 1 are systematically offset from the stellar images by $``$1.1 arcsec, we come to the odd conclusion that Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  indicates that the plate solutions based on H93 astrometry (Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ) and HST metric astrometry (Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ) are considerably more precise (i.e., have excellent fitting errors) — but are significantly less accurate (i.e., have large systematic offsets) — than the plate solutions based on USNO-A2.0 astrometry (Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ).

The precise relative astrometry derived in the previous section can be placed on the International Celestial Reference Frame by simply adding 0 $`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$0637 and -0 $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$92 to the right ascensions and declinations derived from the plate solution based on metric astrometry of the WF2 section of HST WFPC2 observation U4PH0101R.C0H (see Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. ). The squares shown on Fig. 1 indicate the ICRF positions of the W94 stars; these are offset from the stellar images by $``$1.1 arcsec on this particular image. The absolute rms errors of the J2000.0 right ascensions and declinations given in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  are estimated to be 0.35 angular arcsec. This estimate is the sum of the nominal 0.25 arcsec positional error of the USNO-A2.0 catalog and the estimated relative rms positional error of approximately 0.10 arcsec due to the uncertainty of the WFPC2 astrometric calibration as a function of time.

Other WFPC2 observations of this field obtained with different guide stars, roll angles, and apertures, may exhibit different offsets between the stellar images on a given WFPC2 CCD and the computed $`(x,y)`$ pixel locations of the W94 stars on that chip as derived using the invmetric task with Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. .

In order to identify the W94 stars on any given WFPC2 observation of the $`\omega `$ Cen HST calibration field, the reader should first find a given W94 star (preferably W94 star 2) somewhere in observation and then measure its $`(x,y)`$ centroid on the particular chip where the star is present333For example, the center of W94 star 2 is found at the $`(x,y)`$ location of $`(484.92,266.90)`$ of the WF2 section of the WFPC2 observation U4PH0102R.C0H . . Convert that CCD position to a right ascension and declination using the metric task444The following iraf command, metric "u4ph0101r.c0h" x=484.92 y=266.90 , gives $`\alpha _{2000}=`$13h 25m 35 $`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$8656 and $`\delta _{2000}=`$-47° 35′ 27 $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$792 . . Next, determine the difference in right ascension ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha _{2000}`$) and declination ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta _{2000}`$) between the metric value and the ICRF position of that star as given in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. 555Using iraf sexagesimal notation, we find that $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha _{2000}=\alpha _{\text{metric}}\alpha _{\text{table6}}=(\text{13:25:35.8656})(\text{13:25:35.933})=0\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}067`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta _{2000}=\delta _{\text{metric}}\delta _{\text{table6}}=(\text{-47:35:27.792})(\text{-47:35:28.58})=+0\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}788`$ . . Add $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha _{2000}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta _{2000}`$ to all the right ascensions and declinations in Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555. 666Continuing with the example, $`\alpha _{\text{table6}}+\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha _{2000}=\text{13}\text{h}\text{ 25}\text{m}\text{ 35 }\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}\text{866}`$ and $`\delta _{\text{table6}}+\mathrm{\Delta }\delta _{2000}=\text{-47°\hspace{0.17em}35′\hspace{0.17em}27 }\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}\text{79}`$ . . Finally, determine the $`(x,y)`$ locations of the W94 stars on the individual WFPC2 CCDs using the invmetric task with the modified Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  positions777 The following iraf command, invmetric u4ph0102r.c0h ra="13:25:35.866" dec="-47:35:27.79" , gives the $`(x,y)`$ CCD location of $`(484.95,266.93)`$ on the WF2 section of U4PH0102R.C0H. The small difference (0.058 px) between the computed pixel location and the measured value of $`(484.92,266.90)`$ is due to (1) centroiding errors, (2) round-off errors, and (3) the small difference between the metric value, 13h 25m 35 $`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$8656 -47° 35′ 27 $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$792 (determined above), and the plate solution value for W94 star 2, 13h 25m 35 $`\stackrel{\mathrm{s}}{\mathrm{.}}`$869 -47° 35′ 27 $`\stackrel{}{\mathrm{.}}`$66 , which was derived with Table Astrometry of the $`\omega `$ Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field11affiliation:  Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555.  in the previous section.  on a chip-by-chip basis.

I am grateful to Alistair Walker for sending me a glossy reprint of W94 as well as electronic versions of Tables 4 and 5 from W94. I would also like to thank Lindsey Davis, Mike Fitzpatrick, Stephen Levine, Hugh Harris, Stefano Casertano, Brad Whitmore, J. C. Hsu, Andy Fruchter for discussions and advice on various aspects of this project. This research was supported by a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Order No. S-67046-F, which was awarded by the Long-Term Space Astrophysics Program (NRA 95-OSS-16). This research has made use of NASA’s Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service.


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# Photon frequency conversion induced by gravitational radiation

## I Introduction

Recently there has been an increased interest in gravitational waves, mainly due to possibility of direct detection by LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) . Naturally the effects of gravitational waves on earth are very small – which is illustrated by the large dimensions required for detection. Closer to the source the influence of the gravitational waves may be larger, but generally it is nontrivial to predict the possible influence of the emitted radiation – in particular the coupling to the electromagnetic field complicates the description. For a discussion of the interaction between electromagnetic fields and gravitational radiation in an astrophysical context, see for example Refs. , and references therein.

In the present paper we will study the propagation of gravitational perturbations in a magnetized plasma, with the direction of propagation perpendicular to the magnetic field. It turns out that large density gradients driven by the gravitational perturbation can be generated, even for small deviations from flat space, provided the cyclotron frequency is much larger than the plasma frequency. Furthermore, as is well known from laboratory plasmas (see, e.g., ), moving density gradients can increase (or decrease) the frequency of electromagnetic wave packets, so called photon acceleration. The density gradients in our case are propagating with exactly the speed of light, in contrast to the laboratory application . In principle this means that a given photon may increase its energy by several orders of magnitude, independent of its initial energy. Applying our results to gravitational radiation generated by binary systems, it turns out that the regime of most interest is the infrared regime. In this case frequency conversion by an order of magnitude is possible, for a binary system close to merging.

## II Plasma response to a gravitational wave pulse

### A Basic equations

The metric of a linearized gravitational wave propagating in the $`z`$-direction can be written as

$$\mathrm{d}s^2=\mathrm{d}t^2+[1+h(u)]\mathrm{d}x^2+[1h(u)]\mathrm{d}y^2+\mathrm{d}z^2,$$
(1)
where we have assumed linear polarization, and $`uzt`$. For an observer comoving with the time coordinate, the natural frame for measurements is given by

$$e_0=_t,e_1=\left(1\frac{1}{2}h\right)_x,e_2=\left(1+\frac{1}{2}h\right)_y,e_3=_z.$$
(2)
It can be shown  that in such a frame, Maxwell’s equations can be written

$`\mathbf{}\mathbf{}𝑬`$ $`=`$ $`\rho /ϵ_0,`$ (4)
$`\mathbf{}\mathbf{}𝐁`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (5)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{𝑬}{t}}\mathbf{}\mathbf{\times }𝑩`$ $`=`$ $`𝒋__E\mu _0𝒋,`$ (6)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{𝑩}{t}}+\mathbf{}\mathbf{\times }𝑬`$ $`=`$ $`𝒋__B,`$ (7)
where the effective gravitational current densities are defined as

$`j__E^1`$ $`=`$ $`j__B^2=\frac{1}{2}(E^1B^2){\displaystyle \frac{h}{z}},`$ (9)
$`j__E^2`$ $`=`$ $`j__B^1=\frac{1}{2}(E^2+B^1){\displaystyle \frac{h}{z}},`$ (10)
and $`\mathbf{}(e_1,e_2,e_3)`$.

To first order in $`h`$, the fluid equations become

$`{\displaystyle \frac{n}{t}}+\mathbf{}\mathbf{}(n𝒗)`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (12)
$`\left({\displaystyle \frac{}{t}}+𝒗\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\right)\gamma 𝒗`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{q}{m}}(𝑬+𝒗\mathbf{\times }𝑩),`$ (13)
where $`\gamma (1v_{}^2)^{1/2}`$, $`v_{}v_3`$, and $`n=\gamma \stackrel{~}{n}`$, where $`\stackrel{~}{n}`$ is the proper number density. These equations holds for each particle species. Note that in general terms proportional to $`v_1h`$ and $`v_2h`$ appear in the equations . Throughout this paper, we will assume that $`v_1,v_21`$, and thus neglect terms of order $`v_1h`$, $`v_2h`$.

### B Electromagnetic fields driven by a gravitational perturbation

From now on we assume $`/t\omega _\mathrm{c}`$, where $`\omega _\mathrm{c}qB/m`$ is the cyclotron frequency, for all particle species (since the gravitational perturbation is assumed to be the driver of all perturbations this scaling thereby holds for $`/t`$ acting on all fields). Furthermore, we assume the presence of an external magnetic field: $`𝑩_0=B_0e_1`$ \[where the total field is $`𝑩=(B_0+\delta B)e_1`$\]. The electric field takes the form $`𝑬=E_{}e_2`$.

Looking for solutions driven by the gravitational perturbation, and thus using $`/t=/z`$, we first consider Faraday’s law for $`\delta BB_0`$, which gives

$$\delta B=E_{}+hB_0$$
(14)
Next we note that if the excited fields $`E_{}`$ and $`\delta B`$ grows (invalidating $`\delta BB_0`$), the quantity $`E_{}+B`$ that appears in the effective current still becomes $`E_{}+\delta B=hB_0`$, and thereby the above formula holds for arbitrary electromagnetic amplitude. Taking the time derivative of Ampere’s law, using Eq. (14), we obtain

$$\left[\frac{^2}{t^2}\frac{^2}{z^2}\right]E_{}+\mu _0\underset{i}{}\frac{j_{(i)}}{t}=2\frac{^2h}{t^2}B_0,$$
(15)
where the sum is over particle species, and $`j_{}j_2`$. For $`/t=/z`$, the term (explicitly) involving $`E_{}`$ vanishes. The currents are determined by the equation of motion, noting that the condition $`/t\omega _\mathrm{c}`$ means that the current contribution from different particle species cancel to lowest order in an expansion in the operator $`\omega _\mathrm{c}^1/t`$. The equation of motion gives

$$v_{}=\frac{E_{}}{B_0+\delta B}$$
(16)
to lowest order. Note that, using Eq. (14), we can now approximate the denominator in Eq. (16) by $`B_0E_{}`$. The error this approximation introduces will not have any noticeable effects. This is because $`v_{}`$ can only be altered significantly by the omitted term if $`\delta BB_0`$, but this regime is inaccessible, since – from Eq. (16) – it correspond to superluminal speeds. From the parallel component of Eq. (13) we can calculate the first order correction to the induced velocity, which subsequently determines the current. We obtain

$$v_{}=\frac{m}{q}\frac{1v_{}}{B_0E_{}}\frac{(\gamma v_{})}{t}$$
(17)
Furthermore, the continuity equation gives

$$\delta n=\frac{n_0v_{}}{1v_{}}$$
(18)
where we have divided the density into a perturbed and an unperturbed part, $`n=n_0+\delta n`$.

\>From (15) and the relations above we can thus determine the induced velocity and density in terms of the metric perturbation $`h`$. The result (for all particle species) is

$`v_{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1\left(1\right)^2}{1+\left(1\right)^2}},`$ (20)
$`\delta n`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{n_0}{2}}\left[{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\left(1\right)^2}}1\right],`$ (21)
where $`2h/_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)`$, and $`\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}(q_{(i)}^2n_0/ϵ_0m_{(i)})^{1/2}`$ is the plasma frequency for the unperturbed plasma species $`i`$. Thus it is clear that even a moderate or small value of the gravitational perturbation may cause significant density perturbation, provided the plasma is strongly magnetized in the sense that $`_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)1`$. This is because the fast magnetosonic (or compressional Alfvén) wave fulfills approximately the same dispersion relation as the gravitational wave, with the mismatch being proportional to $`_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)`$ . The divergence that occur for $`1`$ is clearly unphysical, and it’s removal will be discussed in the next subsection.

For future considerations it will also be useful to have the relation between the relative magnetic field perturbation and the relative density perturbation. When $`\left|\delta B\right|\left|hB_0\right|`$, which is the case of most interest, the last term of Eq. (14) can be neglected and the desired relation can be derived by combining the resulting formula with Eqs. (16) and (18). The simple result is

$$\frac{\delta n}{n_0}=\frac{\delta B}{B_0}$$
(22)
### C Removal of the divergence

The purpose in this subsection is to explain the reason for the occurrence of divergence when $``$ approaches unity, and to discuss various modifications of the assumptions that lead to a more physical behavior. From Eq. (17) we note that for infinitesimal velocity perturbations, $`v_{}`$ (and thereby $`j_{}`$) depends linearly on $`v_{}`$, but for large parallel velocities, in particular when $`v_{}1`$, $`v_{}`$ remains finite due to the factor $`1v_{}`$. From Eq. (15) it is thus clear that we cannot have a stationary solution where $`E_{}`$ depend only on $`zt`$ for large enough $`h`$, and from Eq. (20) we see that this limit for the gravitational perturbation is reached when $``$ becomes unity. Basically, the physical reason is the following: In vacuum the electromagnetic and gravitational modes obey the same dispersion relation, and therefore – due to the mode coupling provided by the unperturbed magnetic field – the system evolves in a non-stationary way. In particular gravitational wave energy may be continuously converted into electromagnetic wave energy, as will be examined in more detail below. In the presence of a plasma, however, the induced currents change the dispersion relation of the electromagnetic wave, and the resulting detuning of the modes saturate the conversion of energy between them, making a steady state solution (in a frame moving with the velocity of light) possible in principle. For a strongly magnetized plasma, on the other hand, the induced plasma currents cannot grow continuously with $`h`$, as we have seen above. For sufficiently high gravitational amplitude this means that the plasma currents are of little significance, practically the plasma appears as vacuum for $`1`$, and in particular solutions depending only on $`zt`$ are impossible. This conclusion is not dependent on the absence of thermal effects in our calculations in section II B. Generally the addition of thermal motion only modifies our expressions (II B) by a factor of the order $`1+(v_t/c)^2`$, where $`v_t`$ is the thermal velocity. In particular, the divergence of (21) still occurs for a finite value of $``$.

On the other hand, it is clear that our omission of the back reaction of the electromagnetic wave on the gravitational pulse in principle could change this picture, since obviously certain components of the energy momentum tensor also diverges when $`1`$, implying that the gravitational wave amplitude could indeed be diminished due to the influence of the generated EM-wave. The effects of the selfconsistent gravitational field caused by the plasma perturbations are discussed in the Appendix, but will be omitted here since it turns out that the backreaction on the gravitational wave is negligible in the application to be discussed in this article.

Since it is clear that for $`1`$ the generated currents cannot stop the growth of the EM-wave, we simplify the picture from now on by putting the density to zero and thus totally ignoring the plasma effects. The general solution to Eq. (15) for the electric field in the presence of a monochromatic gravitational wave $`h=\stackrel{~}{h}\mathrm{cos}[k(zt)]`$ can then be written

$`\delta B`$ $`=`$ $`E_{}=\frac{1}{2}k(C_zz+C_tt)B_0\stackrel{~}{h}\mathrm{sin}[k(zt)]`$ (24)
$`+E_+(zt)+E_{}(zt),`$
where $`C_z+C_t=1`$ and $`E_+`$ and $`E_{}`$ are arbitrary functions. For an initial value problem where the plasma is unperturbed in the absence of the pulse $`C_z=0,`$ $`C_t=1`$ and $`E_+=E_{}=0`$, i.e. the electromagnetic amplitude grows linearly with time. For a boundary value problem, on the other hand, where the external magnetic field $`B_0`$ occupies a region $`z0`$ and there is a gravitational wave but no EM-waves propagating into the magnetized region, clearly $`C_z=1,`$ $`C_t=0`$ and $`E_+=E_{}=0`$, i.e. we have a linear spatial growth instead. For the applications to be discussed later on we will be interested in a situation where $`B_0`$ is not necessarily static. We thus note that qualitatively the solution given by Eq. (24) still applies for a quasi-static situation, i.e. where the dependence of $`B_0`$ on time is slow enough such that the electric fields $`E`$ associated with the time variations fulfills $`E/B_01`$.

In principle we can achieve very large EM-wave amplitudes also when we abandon the specific solutions depending on $`zt`$. However, since the growth is only linear in $`t`$ and/or $`z`$, apparently we need large times/distances of coherent interaction. For a boundary value problem we can roughly define the effective distance of interaction as $`z_{\mathrm{eff}}`$

$$\delta B_{\mathrm{max}}z_{\mathrm{eff}}B_{0,\mathrm{char}}h_{\mathrm{char}}^{}$$
(25)
where the index $`\mathrm{char}`$ denotes the characteristic values of the various quantities in the region of interest, and the prime denote differentiation with respect to the argument.

To summarize: Eq. (21) have a class of physically sound solutions, but also unphysical ones with the property $`\delta n\mathrm{}`$ as $`1.`$ The singular behavior is caused by the insistence to look for solutions that moves with a specific velocity, together with the omission of the selfconsistent gravitational field from the plasma perturbations. The divergent solutions can be removed either by considering a boundary or an initial value problem, as discussed in this subsection, or by considering the backreaction of the plasma perturbations on the gravitational wave, as discussed in the Appendix. The alternative considered here is the most relevant one with regard to astrophysical applications. Real astrophysical systems have finite distances of interaction between gravitational waves and plasma waves, that can be estimated on physical grounds. Thus when estimating the maximum magnetic field perturbation that can be produced by a gravitational wave in a given situation, we can in principle apply solutions (21) together with (22) but we must note the upper bound for $`\delta B_{\mathrm{max}}`$ that exists for a given $`z_{\mathrm{eff}}`$ and is given by Eq. (25).

## III Photon frequency shift

We now consider the effect of the gravitational wave perturbations on high frequency photons in a plasma. For simplicity we assume that the photons propagate parallel to the gravitational waves and let them be represented by the vector potential $`𝑨=\stackrel{\mathbf{~}}{𝑨}\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{i}\theta )+\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{c}.`$, where $`\mathrm{c}.\mathrm{c}.`$ stands for complex conjugate. Making the approach of geometrical optics , the wave number $`k_z\theta `$ and frequency $`\omega _t\theta `$ satisfies some local dispersion relation $`\omega =W(z,t,k)`$. The amplitude of the vector potential is assumed small and by high frequency photons we mean $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)},\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}`$.

Due to the gravitational waves the plasma has a background of possibly large fields $`\delta n`$, $`v_{}`$, $`\delta B`$, and $`E_{}`$ all being functions of $`zt`$ and varying on a time and length scale much longer than that of $`𝑨`$.

Since $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}`$ the high frequency pulse approximately behaves as if the plasma is unmagnetized. The equation of motion linearized in the high frequency (hf) variables reads

$$\left[\frac{}{t}+v_{}\frac{}{z}\right]𝒗_{(i)}^{\mathrm{hf}}=\frac{q_{(i)}}{\gamma m_{(i)}}\left(\frac{𝑨}{t}+v_{}\frac{𝑨}{z}\right),$$
(26)
and thus $`𝒗_{(i)}^{\mathrm{hf}}=q_{(i)}𝑨/\gamma m_{(i)}`$, where the large scale variations have been neglected. The induced high frequency current is therefore $`𝒋^{\mathrm{hf}}=\omega _\mathrm{p}^2𝑨/\mu _0`$, where the plasma frequency is $`\omega _\mathrm{p}(_iq_{(i)}^2n/ϵ_0m_{(i)}\gamma )^{1/2}`$. Taking the time derivative of Ampere’s law gives the following wave equation for the photons

$$\left[\frac{^2}{t^2}\frac{^2}{z^2}+\omega _\mathrm{p}^2\right]𝑨=0.$$
(27)
We recognize the dispersion relation as $`\omega =[k^2+\omega _\mathrm{p}^2(zt)]^{1/2}`$, where we assume that the variations in the plasma frequency are determined from Eqs. (II B) together with $`\gamma =(1v_{}^2)^{1/2}`$.

The change in the wave number and frequency as the wave propagates through the nonuniform and time varying media with velocity $`v_g=\omega /k`$ is given by the ray equations

$$\frac{dk}{dt}=\frac{W}{z},\frac{d\omega }{dt}=\frac{W}{t}.$$
(28)
Note that $`W`$ is a function of $`zt`$ and introduce coordinates, $`\xi =zv_gt`$, $`\tau =t`$ locally moving with the photons, i.e. it should be understood that $`v_g=v_g(\tau =\tau _0)`$ for some $`\tau _0`$. Then, in a small neighborhood of $`\tau _0`$ it holds that $`d\omega /d\tau =W/\xi `$. Using $`_\xi =(1v_g)^1_\tau `$, this can be integrated from time 1 to 2 (which need not be a small interval), noting that $`1v_g\omega _\mathrm{p}^2/2\omega ^2`$. The result is

$$\frac{\omega _1}{\omega _2}=\frac{\omega _{\mathrm{p1}}^2}{\omega _{\mathrm{p2}}^2},$$
(29)
where the indices $`1`$ and $`2`$ denote the values at $`\tau _1`$ and $`\tau _2`$, respectively. An interesting aspect of Eq. (29) is that the frequency conversion factor $`N=\omega _1/\omega _2`$ is independent of the frequency regime of the EM-wave. Thus, in principle, x-rays can be turned into gamma rays, just as well as infra-red waves can be converted into the visible regime. This is in contrast to laser excited wake fields , where efficient frequency shifts can only take place provided the frequency of the converted pulse roughly lies in the same frequency regime as the exciting laser pulse. The reason for the difference is that the density gradients propagates with exactly the speed of light in our case, whereas, naturally, the corresponding velocity is slightly less than $`c`$ in the laboratory experiments. The necessary distance of acceleration for a given conversion factor $`N`$ is proportional to $`\omega ^2`$, however, and this puts certain limits for the applicability to the highest frequency regimes.

## IV Example

We have found that large density perturbations traveling with the velocity of light can be induced by small gravitational wave perturbations, provided the cyclotron frequency is much larger than the plasma frequency, as described by Eqs. (II B). Furthermore, photons propagating in a moving density gradient can undergo frequency up-conversion (or down-conversion), as described by Eq. (29). In principle the effects can be large, even for a moderate deviation from flat space-time. It is not yet clear that the predicted frequency conversion can be observed during reasonable conditions, however, and our aim in this section is to provide estimates to shed light on this question. In this section we reinstate the speed of light in all expressions.

As a source of gravitational radiation we consider a binary system. At least one of the objects should have a moderate to strong magnetic field (in order to make the parameter $`_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)`$ small), and the objects should be compact (as to make the gravitational wave frequency and amplitude before merging large). Thus, for definiteness (and calculational simplicity due to symmetries) we assume that the system consists of two neutron stars of equal mass $`M_{}`$, separated by a distance of $`40R_S`$, where $`R_S=2GM_{}/c^23`$ km. Furthermore, the surface magnetic field of each neutron star is assumed to be $`10^6`$ T. For the unperturbed plasma density profile, see Fig. 1.

The area surrounding the binary system can loosely be divided into three regions (Fig. 1). The interval $`20R_S30R_S`$ from the center of mass (CM) roughly constitutes region I, which is the region where most of the gravitational energy is gained by the EM-wave. Using a Newtonian approximation, with $`d=\alpha R_S`$ and $`r=\beta R_S`$, it is straightforward to show that $`|h|(2\alpha \beta )^1`$, where $`d`$ is the separation distance between the binary objects and $`r`$ is the observation distance from the center of mass of the system. In order to obtain an estimate of the amplitude of the generated EM-wave, we combine the above expression for the gravitational wave amplitude with Eq. (25) and the data given above. The result is

$$\frac{\delta B}{B_0}7\times 10^5$$
(30)
at the of end region I. In region II (approximate interval $`30R_S3500R_S`$ from the CM) $`\delta B/B_0`$ is still small, and – as seen by Eq. (22) – the relative density perturbation is thereby small as well, which limits the frequency conversion effect in this region. However, the gravitationally induced EM-wave suffers spherical attenuation, whereas the unperturbed magnetic field is that of a dipole, and consequently the relative density perturbation grows quadratically with distance. The end of region II is defined as the necessary distance to make $`\delta B/B_0`$ of the order unity due to this increase. (For pulsars with period longer than $`35`$ ms, region I and II lies in the near zone, and thus the unperturbed magnetic field indeed decays cubically in the region of interest, although the unperturbed field becomes a radiation field outside the light cylinder of the pulsar.) In region III (approximate interval $`3500R_S10^6R_S`$), the relative density perturbation is appreciable, and thus the main frequency conversion occurs here .

At the beginning of region III the relative density perturbation is $`\delta n/n_01`$, in agreement with Eq. (22). An EM-wave with initial frequency $`\omega \omega _{\mathrm{min}}=10^{12}\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}`$ can move from a density minimum to a density maximum during a “laboratory system distance” $`L_{\mathrm{freq}}=cT_{\mathrm{freq}}=cL_{\mathrm{grad}}/(cv_g)\omega _{\mathrm{max}}^2L_{\mathrm{grad}}/\omega _\mathrm{p}^2`$, where $`L_{\mathrm{grad}}`$ is a typical density gradient scale length. For definiteness we assume that the pulsars have periods of the order of 350 ms, in which case $`\delta B/B_0`$ may increase to $`\delta B/B_010`$ for the most of region III. In our example the maximum frequency magnification $`N`$ thus is

$$N=\frac{\omega _{\mathrm{max}}}{\omega _{\mathrm{min}}}=\frac{\omega _{\mathrm{p},\mathrm{max}}^2}{\omega _{\mathrm{p},\mathrm{min}}^2}10.$$
(31)
Inserting $`\omega _{\mathrm{max}}=10^{13}\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}`$, and letting $`\omega _{\mathrm{p},\mathrm{max}}^2=10^{11}\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}`$ (corresponding to $`n_010^{12}\mathrm{cm}^3`$) we obtain $`L_{\mathrm{freq}}10^6R_\mathrm{S}`$, i.e. the acceleration can take place within region III. Strictly applying our one-dimensional calculations of Sec. III means that frequency up-converted EM-waves will be down-converted and vice versa, if the gravitational source and the induced density perturbation are indeed periodic. In our example, on the other hand, the successive frequency conversion effects will decrease with the distance from the source, and thus for an earth based observer the radiation generated in region III should show periodic up- and down-conversions. The frequency conversion ratio of Eq. (31) is of course a maximum value of our example, that occurs for radiation generated at a density extremum, but all radiation generated in region III will be up- or down converted with a factor in the interval $`1N`$, and consequently the effect should be observable provided the object is close enough for radiation generated in region III, in the approximate frequency interval $`10^{11}\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}\omega 10^{14}\mathrm{rad}/\mathrm{s}`$, to be detected, where the upper limit is imposed by the fact that the system has a finite distance of interaction. If we try to increase the interaction efficiency by considering higher plasma densities the electromagnetic wave damping due to Thomson scattering becomes prohibitive.

## V Summary and discussion

We have considered the generation of traveling density perturbations in a magnetized plasma induced by gravitational radiation. Provided $`_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)1`$, significant density perturbations, i.e. $`\delta n/n_01`$, can be induced even by a small gravitational wave with $`h1`$, provided $`1`$. Basically the large effect is possible because of the approximate agreement of the dispersion relations between the fast magnetosonic and gravitational modes in the regime $`_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)1`$, which in turn allows for a long distance of coherent interaction.

In order to find a mechanism where the induced density perturbations may give rise to earth-based observational effects, we have studied frequency conversion of electromagnetic wave packets traveling in the moving density gradients. The formula (29), relating the frequency of the wave packet for two different positions in the moving density profile, is in conceptual agreement with the corresponding results of Ref. , which considered an analogous situation but where the density perturbation was due to plasma oscillations traveling with a phase velocity slightly less than the speed of light $`c`$. In our case the gradients move with exactly $`c`$, however, and thereby the maximum frequency conversion factor $`N`$ does not decrease with the initial frequency \[as for conventional photon acceleration\], in principle allowing for up-conversion even of $`\gamma `$-rays.

The idealizations made in Secs. II and III is a somewhat too strong for our results to be directly applicable to a situation of astrophysical relevance. In particular, we cannot consider the unperturbed plasma as homogeneous and the geometry as one-dimensional when making estimates. In our example with a binary system as a source of gravitational radiation, we have thus been forced to divide the neighborhood of the system into three regions: Region I where most of the energy transfer into electromagnetic wave energy occurs, region II where the relative density perturbation grows, and region III where the frequency conversion takes place. In order to describe the physics in region I adequately we must abandon solutions that depend on $`zct`$ only, and the basis for this has been discussed in Sec. II C. By making estimates based on our analytical calculations, we conclude that the gravitational waves emitted by a system of binary pulsars close to merging may result in periodic frequency up- and down-conversions of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared part of the spectrum. The frequency of the up- and down-conversions coincides with the gravitational wave frequency, i.e. it is twice the orbital frequency.

## VI Appendix

In this appendix we are going to investigate the regime of validity for the multi-component test fluid approach. Normally we think that by continually decreasing the parameters proportional to the unperturbed energy density, at some point the fluid in an external gravitational field can be treated as a test fluid. In our case the situation is not quite that simple, since we can decrease the electromagnetic ($`B_0^2`$) and the rest mass energy density ($`n_0`$)at the same rate keeping $`_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)`$ constant. Since our solution in section II B has a diverging energy-momentum tensor whenever $`2h/_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)1`$, clearly we cannot justify the test fluid approach simply by assuming a sufficiently low unperturbed energy density. To shed light on the physical effects due to the selfconsistent gravitational field, we will first consider the linearized theory. This will provide a guide for making estimates of the regime of validity of our (nonlinear) test matter solution in section II B, and also makes it possible to justify the omission of selfconsistent gravitational effects in section IV .

We divide all quantities into an unperturbed part (i.e. the value in the absence of the gravitational perturbation) and a perturbed part. We note that the only variables that are nonzero in the unperturbed state are the density ($`=n_0`$), the magnetic field ($`=B_0e_1`$) and the metric ($`=\eta _{\mu \nu }`$). It should be emphasized that in addition to the direct effect on the dispersion relation from the matter, which we will study below, there is also an indirect contribution (that will be omitted here) to the dispersion relation from the background curvature produced by the (unperturbed) matter. In the regime where the gravitational wave length is much shorter than the background curvature, however, the shortwave approximation can be applied, which imply that these two effects can be studied separately and their contribution to the dispersion relation of the gravitational wave can be added, see e.g. Ref. . In the above scenario (provided thermal effects are still neglected) the only effects from the gravitational wave on the plasma perturbations are from the effective currents in (9)-(10), where, in the present case, we have $`j__E^2=j__B^1=(1/2)B_0(h/z)`$ and the other components are zero. Thus using Maxwells eqs. and the the set of fluid equations for each particle species and the same approximations as in section II (but avoiding the ansatz $`/t=/z`$) we will obtain a wave equation for the fast magnetosonic wave, modified from the standard textbook form by allowing for an arbitrary value of $`_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)`$, and with a gravitational ”source term” due to the effective gravitational currents above. The result is

$$\left(\frac{^2}{t^2}+\frac{C_A^2}{1+C_A^2}\frac{^2}{z^2}\right)\delta B=2\frac{^2h}{t^2}B_0$$
(32)
where we have introduced the Alfvén velocity $`C_A=\left(_i(\omega _{\mathrm{p}(i)}^2/\omega _{\mathrm{c}(i)}^2)\right)^{1/2}`$.(Note that $`C_A`$ may be larger than unity, but, as can be seen above, the actual magnetosonic wave velocity is smaller or equal to $`C_A.`$) The system is closed selfconsistently by Einstein’s field equations, which, after linearization reduces to (cf Eq. 4.9 in Ref. )

$$\left(\frac{^2}{t^2}+\frac{^2}{z^2}\right)h=16\pi G[T_{11}T_{22}]_{\mathrm{lin}}=\frac{16\pi G}{\mu _0}B_0\delta B$$
(33)
where $`\mathrm{lin}`$ stands for ”linear part of”. It is simple to combine Eqs. (32) and (33) into a single wave equation for the coupled fast magnetosonic and gravitational mode. However, it is probably more illustrative to proceed by considering the corresponding dispersion relation. Making a plane wave ansatz, $`\delta B=\stackrel{~}{\delta B}\mathrm{exp}[i(kz\omega t)]`$ and $`h=\stackrel{~}{h}\mathrm{exp}[i(kz\omega t)]`$, we directly find the dispersion relation:

$$\omega ^2k^2=\frac{32\pi GB_0^2}{\mu _0}\left(\frac{\omega ^2}{\omega ^2k^2C_A^2/(1+C_A^2)}\right)$$
(34)
from Eqs. (32) and (33). Thus the presence of matter causes a phase velocity $`\omega /k>1`$ and a group velocity $`d\omega /dk<1`$. A further consequence is that the gravitational wave also becomes dispersive. Apparently the relation between $`\stackrel{~}{\delta B}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{h}`$ is

$$\stackrel{~}{\delta B}=B_0\stackrel{~}{h}\left(\frac{\omega ^2}{\omega ^2k^2C_A^2/(1+C_A^2)}\right)$$
(35)
where the omission of the selfconsistent gravitational field is a valid approximation only if we can use the vacuum dispersion relation $`\omega ^2k^2=0`$ as an approximation instead of Eq. (34) when calculating $`\stackrel{~}{\delta B}`$ from (35). From now on we will focus on the regime $`C_A1`$, which make the magnetosonic phase velocity close to unity. Since the (typically small) right hand side of (34) now must be compared to the small phase velocity difference of the (uncoupled) magnetosonic and gravitational waves, the condition for omitting the selfconsistent gravitational field is significantly stronger if one should get an approximately correct magnetic field, and not just a small contribution from the right hand side in the dispersion relation (34). For $`C_A1`$ the condition for omitting the selfconsistent gravitational field, and still obtaining an approximate expression for $`\stackrel{~}{\delta B},`$ becomes:

$$\frac{32\pi GB_0^2}{\mu _0}\frac{\omega ^2}{C_A^4}$$
(36)
The above validity condition is obtained by comparing the magnetic field obtained from the full selfconsistent dispersion relation and its vacuum approximation. A much simpler way to arrive at the same condition as in (36) is to demand that the relative contribution from the energy momentum tensor terms in Einstein’s equations should be much smaller than the relative velocity difference between the magnetosonic and gravitational waves. The advantage with this latter formulation of the validity condition is that it can be easily applied also when the relation between $`\delta B`$ and $`h`$ as well as the expression for the energy momentum tensor are nonlinear. Adopting this condition for omitting the selfconsistent gravitational field when the plasma response to the metric perturbation is nonlinear we write

$$32\pi G\mathrm{max}(\delta T)\frac{\omega _{\mathrm{char}}^2}{C_A^2}h_{\mathrm{char}}$$
(37)
where $`\mathrm{max}(\delta T)`$ denotes the maximum deviation from the unperturbed value of the perturbed energy momentum tensor for any of its components, and the index ”char” denotes the characteristic value of the gravitational wave frequency and metric perturbation, respectively. For the regime when Eq. (37) is violated, obviously our solution in section II B must be modified to take the selfconsistent gravitational field into account, and this may result in new types of solutions describing, for example, nonlinear solitary gravitational pulses. This problem is outside the scope of our present article, however. We note that our example in section IV, fulfills the validity condition (37) with a margin of several orders of magnitude.