Spectral Characteristic Evolution: A New Algorithm for Gravitational Wave Propagation

We present a spectral algorithm for solving the full nonlinear vacuum Einstein field equations in the Bondi framework. Developed within the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC), we demonstrate spectral characteristic evolution as a technical precursor to Cauchy Characteristic Extraction (CCE), a rigorous method for obtaining gauge-invariant gravitational waveforms from existing and future astrophysical simulations. We demonstrate the new algorithm's stability, convergence, and agreement with existing evolution methods. We explain how an innovative spectral approach enables a two orders of magnitude improvement in computational efficiency.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figure

Spectral Cauchy Characteristic Extraction of strain, news and gravitational radiation flux

We present a new approach for the Cauchy-characteristic extraction of gravitational radiation strain, news function, and the flux of the energy-momentum, supermomentum and angular momentum associated with the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs asymptotic symmetries. In Cauchy-characteristic extraction, a characteristic evolution code takes numerical data on an inner worldtube supplied by a Cauchy evolution code, and propagates it outwards to obtain the space-time metric in a neighborhood of null infinity. The metric is first determined in a scrambled form in terms of coordinates determined by the Cauchy formalism. In prior treatments, the waveform is first extracted from this metric and then transformed into an asymptotic inertial coordinate system. This procedure provides the physically proper description of the waveform and the radiated energy but it does not generalize to determine the flux of angular momentum or supermomentum. Here we formulate and implement a new approach which transforms the full metric into an asymptotic inertial frame and provides a uniform treatment of all the radiation fluxes associated with the asymptotic symmetries. Computations are performed and calibrated using the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC).Comment: 30 pages, 17 figure

The Merger of Small and Large Black Holes

We present simulations of binary black holes mergers in which, after the common outer horizon has formed, the marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs) corresponding to the individual black holes continue to approach and eventually penetrate each other. This has very interesting consequences according to recent results in the theory of MOTSs. Uniqueness and stability theorems imply that two MOTSs which touch with a common outer normal must be identical. This suggests a possible dramatic consequence of the collision between a small and large black hole. If the penetration were to continue to completion then the two MOTSs would have to coalesce, by some combination of the small one growing and the big one shrinking. Here we explore the relationship between theory and numerical simulations, in which a small black hole has halfway penetrated a large one.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figure

Characteristic extraction tool for gravitational waveforms

We develop and calibrate a characteristic waveform extraction tool whose major improvements and corrections of prior versions allow satisfaction of the accuracy standards required for advanced LIGO data analysis. The extraction tool uses a characteristic evolution code to propagate numerical data on an inner worldtube supplied by a 3+1 Cauchy evolution to obtain the gravitational waveform at null infinity. With the new extraction tool, high accuracy and convergence of the numerical error can be demonstrated for an inspiral and merger of mass M binary black holes even for an extraction worldtube radius as small as R=20M. The tool provides a means for unambiguous comparison between waveforms generated by evolution codes based upon different formulations of the Einstein equations and based upon different numerical approximations

Strategies for the characteristic extraction of gravitational waveforms

We develop, test, and compare new numerical and geometrical methods for improving the accuracy of extracting waveforms using characteristic evolution. The new numerical method involves use of circular boundaries to the stereographic grid patches which cover the spherical cross sections of the outgoing null cones. We show how an angular version of numerical dissipation can be introduced into the characteristic code to damp the high frequency error arising form the irregular way the circular patch boundary cuts through the grid. The new geometric method involves use of the Weyl tensor component Psi4 to extract the waveform as opposed to the original approach via the Bondi news function. We develop the necessary analytic and computational formula to compute the O(1/r) radiative part of Psi4 in terms of a conformally compactified treatment of null infinity. These methods are compared and calibrated in test problems based upon linearized waves

Simulating merging binary black holes with nearly extremal spins

Astrophysically realistic black holes may have spins that are nearly extremal (i.e., close to 1 in dimensionless units). Numerical simulations of binary black holes are important tools both for calibrating analytical templates for gravitational-wave detection and for exploring the nonlinear dynamics of curved spacetime. However, all previous simulations of binary-black-hole inspiral, merger, and ringdown have been limited by an apparently insurmountable barrier: the merging holes' spins could not exceed 0.93, which is still a long way from the maximum possible value in terms of the physical effects of the spin. In this paper, we surpass this limit for the first time, opening the way to explore numerically the behavior of merging, nearly extremal black holes. Specifically, using an improved initial-data method suitable for binary black holes with nearly extremal spins, we simulate the inspiral (through 12.5 orbits), merger and ringdown of two equal-mass black holes with equal spins of magnitude 0.95 antialigned with the orbital angular momentum.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, updated with version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D, removed a plot that was incorrectly included at the end of the article in version v

Well-Posed Initial-Boundary Evolution in General Relativity

Maximally dissipative boundary conditions are applied to the initial-boundary value problem for Einstein's equations in harmonic coordinates to show that it is well-posed for homogeneous boundary data and for boundary data that is small in a linearized sense. The method is implemented as a nonlinear evolution code which satisfies convergence tests in the nonlinear regime and is robustly stable in the weak field regime. A linearized version has been stably matched to a characteristic code to compute the gravitational waveform radiated to infinity.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; added another convergence plot to Fig. 2 + minor change

Modeling the Black Hole Excision Problem

We analyze the excision strategy for simulating black holes. The problem is modeled by the propagation of quasi-linear waves in a 1-dimensional spatial region with timelike outer boundary, spacelike inner boundary and a horizon in between. Proofs of well-posed evolution and boundary algorithms for a second differential order treatment of the system are given for the separate pieces underlying the finite difference problem. These are implemented in a numerical code which gives accurate long term simulations of the quasi-linear excision problem. Excitation of long wavelength exponential modes, which are latent in the problem, are suppressed using conservation laws for the discretized system. The techniques are designed to apply directly to recent codes for the Einstein equations based upon the harmonic formulation.Comment: 21 pages, 14 postscript figures, minor contents updat

An Improved Gauge Driver for the Generalized Harmonic Einstein System

A new gauge driver is introduced for the generalized harmonic (GH) representation of Einstein's equation. This new driver allows a rather general class of gauge conditions to be implemented in a way that maintains the hyperbolicity of the combined evolution system. This driver is more stable and effective, and unlike previous drivers, allows stable evolutions using the dual-frame evolution technique. Appropriate boundary conditions for this new gauge driver are constructed, and a new boundary condition for the ``gauge'' components of the spacetime metric in the GH Einstein system is introduced. The stability and effectiveness of this new gauge driver are demonstrated through numerical tests, which impose a new damped-wave gauge condition on the evolutions of single black-hole spacetimes.Comment: v2: final version to be published in PRD; 15 pages, 5 figure