11 research outputs found
Beyond the Bowen-York extrinsic curvature for spinning black holes
It is well-known that Bowen-York initial data contain spurious radiation.
Although this ``junk'' radiation has been seen to be small for non-spinning
black-hole binaries in circular orbit, its magnitude increases when the black
holes are given spin. It is possible to reduce the spurious radiation by
applying the puncture approach to multiple Kerr black holes, as we demonstrate
for examples of head-on collisions of equal-mass black-hole binaries.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, submitted to special "New Frontiers in Numerical
Relativity" issue of Classical and Quantum Gravit
Binary black holes on a budget: Simulations using workstations
Binary black hole simulations have traditionally been computationally very
expensive: current simulations are performed in supercomputers involving dozens
if not hundreds of processors, thus systematic studies of the parameter space
of binary black hole encounters still seem prohibitive with current technology.
Here we show how the multi-layered refinement level code BAM can be used on
dual processor workstations to simulate certain binary black hole systems. BAM,
based on the moving punctures method, provides grid structures composed of
boxes of increasing resolution near the center of the grid. In the case of
binaries, the highest resolution boxes are placed around each black hole and
they track them in their orbits until the final merger when a single set of
levels surrounds the black hole remnant. This is particularly useful when
simulating spinning black holes since the gravitational fields gradients are
larger. We present simulations of binaries with equal mass black holes with
spins parallel to the binary axis and intrinsic magnitude of S/m^2= 0.75. Our
results compare favorably to those of previous simulations of this particular
system. We show that the moving punctures method produces stable simulations at
maximum spatial resolutions up to M/160 and for durations of up to the
equivalent of 20 orbital periods.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures. Final version, to appear in a special issue of
Class. Quantum Grav. based on the New Frontiers in Numerical Relativity
Conference, Golm, July 200
Multipolar analysis of spinning binaries
We present a preliminary study of the multipolar structure of gravitational
radiation from spinning black hole binary mergers. We consider three different
spinning binary configurations: (1) one "hang-up" run, where the black holes
have equal masses and large spins initially aligned with the orbital angular
momentum; (2) seven "spin-flip" runs, where the holes have a mass ratio q=4,
the spins are anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum, and the initial
Kerr parameters of the holes j_1=j_2=j_i are fine-tuned to produce a
Schwarzschild remnant after merger; (3) three "super-kick" runs where the mass
ratio q=M_1/M_2=1, 2, 4 and the spins of the two holes are initially located on
the orbital plane, pointing in opposite directions. For all of these
simulations we compute the multipolar energy distribution and the Kerr
parameter of the final hole. For the hang-up run, we show that including
leading-order spin-orbit and spin-spin terms in a multipolar decomposition of
the post-Newtonian waveforms improves the agreement with the numerical
simulation.Comment: corrected minor typos in Eqs.(2),(3); final version accepted by CQ
Asymptotic properties of the development of conformally flat data near spatial infinity
Certain aspects of the behaviour of the gravitational field near null and
spatial infinity for the developments of asymptotically Euclidean, conformally
flat initial data sets are analysed. Ideas and results from two different
approaches are combined: on the one hand the null infinity formalism related to
the asymptotic characteristic initial value problem and on the other the
regular Cauchy initial value problem at spatial infinity which uses Friedrich's
representation of spatial infinity as a cylinder. The decay of the Weyl tensor
for the developments of the class of initial data under consideration is
analysed under some existence and regularity assumptions for the asymptotic
expansions obtained using the cylinder at spatial infinity. Conditions on the
initial data to obtain developments satisfying the Peeling Behaviour are
identified. Further, the decay of the asymptotic shear on null infinity is also
examined as one approaches spatial infinity. This decay is related to the
possibility of selecting the Poincar\'e group out of the BMS group in a
canonical fashion. It is found that for the class of initial data under
consideration, if the development peels, then the asymptotic shear goes to zero
at spatial infinity. Expansions of the Bondi mass are also examined. Finally,
the Newman-Penrose constants of the spacetime are written in terms of initial
data quantities and it is shown that the constants defined at future null
infinity are equal to those at past null infinity.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figur
Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes?
When simulating the inspiral and coalescence of a binary black-hole system,
special care needs to be taken in handling the singularities. Two main
techniques are used in numerical-relativity simulations: A first and more
traditional one ``excises'' a spatial neighbourhood of the singularity from the
numerical grid on each spacelike hypersurface. A second and more recent one,
instead, begins with a ``puncture'' solution and then evolves the full
3-metric, including the singular point. In the continuum limit, excision is
justified by the light-cone structure of the Einstein equations and, in
practice, can give accurate numerical solutions when suitable discretizations
are used. However, because the field variables are non-differentiable at the
puncture, there is no proof that the moving-punctures technique is correct,
particularly in the discrete case. To investigate this question we use both
techniques to evolve a binary system of equal-mass non-spinning black holes. We
compare the evolution of two curvature 4-scalars with proper time along the
invariantly-defined worldline midway between the two black holes, using
Richardson extrapolation to reduce the influence of finite-difference
truncation errors. We find that the excision and moving-punctures evolutions
produce the same invariants along that worldline, and thus the same spacetimes
throughout that worldline's causal past. This provides convincing evidence that
moving-punctures are indeed equivalent to moving black holes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps color figures; v2 = major revisions to introduction &
conclusions based on referee comments, but no change in analysis or result
Characteristic extraction in numerical relativity: binary black hole merger waveforms at null infinity
The accurate modeling of gravitational radiation is a key issue for
gravitational wave astronomy. As simulation codes reach higher accuracy,
systematic errors inherent in current numerical relativity wave-extraction
methods become evident, and may lead to a wrong astrophysical interpretation of
the data. In this paper, we give a detailed description of the
Cauchy-characteristic extraction technique applied to binary black hole
inspiral and merger evolutions to obtain gravitational waveforms that are
defined unambiguously, that is, at future null infinity. By this method we
remove finite-radius approximations and the need to extrapolate data from the
near zone. Further, we demonstrate that the method is free of gauge effects and
thus is affected only by numerical error. Various consistency checks reveal
that energy and angular momentum are conserved to high precision and agree very
well with extrapolated data. In addition, we revisit the computation of the
gravitational recoil and find that finite radius extrapolation very well
approximates the result at \scri. However, the (non-convergent) systematic
differences to extrapolated data are of the same order of magnitude as the
(convergent) discretisation error of the Cauchy evolution hence highlighting
the need for correct wave-extraction.Comment: 41 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, added references, fixed typos. Version
matches published version
From Geometry to Numerics: interdisciplinary aspects in mathematical and numerical relativity
This article reviews some aspects in the current relationship between
mathematical and numerical General Relativity. Focus is placed on the
description of isolated systems, with a particular emphasis on recent
developments in the study of black holes. Ideas concerning asymptotic flatness,
the initial value problem, the constraint equations, evolution formalisms,
geometric inequalities and quasi-local black hole horizons are discussed on the
light of the interaction between numerical and mathematical relativists.Comment: Topical review commissioned by Classical and Quantum Gravity.
Discussion inspired by the workshop "From Geometry to Numerics" (Paris, 20-24
November, 2006), part of the "General Relativity Trimester" at the Institut
Henri Poincare (Fall 2006). Comments and references added. Typos corrected.
Submitted to Classical and Quantum Gravit
The NINJA-2 project: detecting and characterizing gravitational waveforms modelled using numerical binary black hole simulations
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