4,335 research outputs found
Detector panels-micrometeoroid impact Patent
Development of large area micrometeoroid impact detector panel
Excision boundary conditions for black hole initial data
We define and extensively test a set of boundary conditions that can be
applied at black hole excision surfaces when the Hamiltonian and momentum
constraints of general relativity are solved within the conformal thin-sandwich
formalism. These boundary conditions have been designed to result in black
holes that are in quasiequilibrium and are completely general in the sense that
they can be applied with any conformal three-geometry and slicing condition.
Furthermore, we show that they retain precisely the freedom to specify an
arbitrary spin on each black hole. Interestingly, we have been unable to find a
boundary condition on the lapse that can be derived from a quasiequilibrium
condition. Rather, we find evidence that the lapse boundary condition is part
of the initial temporal gauge choice. To test these boundary conditions, we
have extensively explored the case of a single black hole and the case of a
binary system of equal-mass black holes, including the computation of
quasi-circular orbits and the determination of the inner-most stable circular
orbit. Our tests show that the boundary conditions work well.Comment: 23 pages, 23 figures, revtex4, corrected typos, added reference,
minor content changes including additional post-Newtonian comparison. Version
accepted by PR
The Innermost Stable Circular Orbit of Binary Black Holes
We introduce a new method to construct solutions to the constraint equations
of general relativity describing binary black holes in quasicircular orbit.
Black hole pairs with arbitrary momenta can be constructed with a simple method
recently suggested by Brandt and Bruegmann, and quasicircular orbits can then
be found by locating a minimum in the binding energy along sequences of
constant horizon area. This approach produces binary black holes in a
"three-sheeted" manifold structure, as opposed to the "two-sheeted" structure
in the conformal-imaging approach adopted earlier by Cook. We focus on locating
the innermost stable circular orbit and compare with earlier calculations. Our
results confirm those of Cook and imply that the underlying manifold structure
has a very small effect on the location of the innermost stable circular orbit.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, RevTex, submitted to PR
Local and global properties of conformally flat initial data for black hole collisions
We study physical properties of conformal initial value data for single and
binary black hole configurations obtained using conformal-imaging and
conformal-puncture methods. We investigate how the total mass M_tot of a
dataset with two black holes depends on the configuration of linear or angular
momentum and separation of the holes. The asymptotic behavior of M_tot with
increasing separation allows us to make conclusions about an unphysical
``junk'' gravitation field introduced in the solutions by the conformal
approaches. We also calculate the spatial distribution of scalar invariants of
the Riemann tensor which determine the gravitational tidal forces. For single
black hole configurations, these are compared to known analytical solutions.
Spatial distribution of the invariants allows us to make certain conclusions
about the local distribution of the additional field in the numerical datasets
Initial Data and Coordinates for Multiple Black Hole Systems
We present here an alternative approach to data setting for spacetimes with
multiple moving black holes generalizing the Kerr-Schild form for rotating or
non-rotating single black holes to multiple moving holes. Because this scheme
preserves the Kerr-Schild form near the holes, it selects out the behaviour of
null rays near the holes, may simplify horizon tracking, and may prove useful
in computational applications. For computational evolution, a discussion of
coordinates (lapse function and shift vector) is given which preserves some of
the properties of the single-hole Kerr-Schild form
Numerical method for binary black hole/neutron star initial data: Code test
A new numerical method to construct binary black hole/neutron star initial
data is presented. The method uses three spherical coordinate patches; Two of
these are centered at the binary compact objects and cover a neighborhood of
each object; the third patch extends to the asymptotic region. As in the
Komatsu-Eriguchi-Hachisu method, nonlinear elliptic field equations are
decomposed into a flat space Laplacian and a remaining nonlinear expression
that serves in each iteration as an effective source. The equations are solved
iteratively, integrating a Green's function against the effective source at
each iteration. Detailed convergence tests for the essential part of the code
are performed for a few types of selected Green's functions to treat different
boundary conditions. Numerical computation of the gravitational potential of a
fluid source, and a toy model for a binary black hole field are carefully
calibrated with the analytic solutions to examine accuracy and convergence of
the new code. As an example of the application of the code, an initial data set
for binary black holes in the Isenberg-Wilson-Mathews formulation is presented,
in which the apparent horizons are located using a method described in Appendix
A.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figure
Collisions of boosted black holes: perturbation theory prediction of gravitational radiation
We consider general relativistic Cauchy data representing two nonspinning,
equal-mass black holes boosted toward each other. When the black holes are
close enough to each other and their momentum is sufficiently high, an
encompassing apparent horizon is present so the system can be viewed as a
single, perturbed black hole. We employ gauge-invariant perturbation theory,
and integrate the Zerilli equation to analyze these time-asymmetric data sets
and compute gravitational wave forms and emitted energies. When coupled with a
simple Newtonian analysis of the infall trajectory, we find striking agreement
between the perturbation calculation of emitted energies and the results of
fully general relativistic numerical simulations of time-symmetric initial
data.Comment: 5 pages (RevTex 3.0 with 3 uuencoded figures), CRSR-107
The Angular Momentum Operator in the Dirac Equation
The Dirac equation in spherically symmetric fields is separated in two
different tetrad frames. One is the standard cartesian (fixed) frame and the
second one is the diagonal (rotating) frame. After separating variables in the
Dirac equation in spherical coordinates, and solving the corresponding
eingenvalues equations associated with the angular operators, we obtain that
the spinor solution in the rotating frame can be expressed in terms of Jacobi
polynomials, and it is related to the standard spherical harmonics, which are
the basis solution of the angular momentum in the Cartesian tetrad, by a
similarity transformation.Comment: 13 pages,CPT-94/P.3027,late
Shells around black holes: the effect of freely specifiable quantities in Einstein's constraint equations
We solve Einstein's constraint equations in the conformal thin-sandwich
decomposition to model thin shells of non-interacting particles in circular
orbit about a non-rotating black hole. We use these simple models to explore
the effects of some of the freely specifiable quantities in this decomposition
on the physical content of the solutions. Specifically, we adopt either maximal
slicing or Kerr-Schild slicing, and make different choices for the value of the
lapse on the black hole horizon. For one particular choice of these quantities
the resulting equations can be solved analytically; for all others we construct
numerical solutions. We find that these different choices have no effect on our
solutions when they are expressed in terms of gauge-invariant quantities.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Can a combination of the conformal thin-sandwich and puncture methods yield binary black hole solutions in quasi-equilibrium?
We consider combining two important methods for constructing
quasi-equilibrium initial data for binary black holes: the conformal
thin-sandwich formalism and the puncture method. The former seeks to enforce
stationarity in the conformal three-metric and the latter attempts to avoid
internal boundaries, like minimal surfaces or apparent horizons. We show that
these two methods make partially conflicting requirements on the boundary
conditions that determine the time slices. In particular, it does not seem
possible to construct slices that are quasi-stationary and avoid physical
singularities and simultaneously are connected by an everywhere positive lapse
function, a condition which must obtain if internal boundaries are to be
avoided. Some relaxation of these conflicting requirements may yield a soluble
system, but some of the advantages that were sought in combining these
approaches will be lost.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX2e, 2 postscript figure
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