Intermediate behavior of Kerr tails

The numerical investigation of wave propagation in the asymptotic domain of Kerr spacetime has only recently been possible thanks to the construction of suitable hyperboloidal coordinates. The asymptotics revealed an apparent puzzle in the decay rates of scalar fields: the late-time rates seemed to depend on whether finite distance observers are in the strong field domain or far away from the rotating black hole, an apparent phenomenon dubbed "splitting". We discuss far-field "splitting" in the full field and near-horizon "splitting" in certain projected modes using horizon-penetrating, hyperboloidal coordinates. For either case we propose an explanation to the cause of the "splitting" behavior, and we determine uniquely decay rates that previous studies found to be ambiguous or immeasurable. The far-field "splitting" is explained by competition between projected modes. The near-horizon "splitting" is due to excitation of lower multipole modes that back excite the multipole mode for which "splitting" is observed. In both cases "splitting" is an intermediate effect, such that asymptotically in time strong field rates are valid at all finite distances. At any finite time, however, there are three domains with different decay rates whose boundaries move outwards during evolution. We then propose a formula for the decay rate of tails that takes into account the inter--mode excitation effect that we study.Comment: 16 page

A conformal approach to numerical calculations of asymptotically flat spacetimes

This thesis is concerned with the development and application of conformal techniques to numerical calculations of asymptotically flat spacetimes. The conformal compactification technique enables us to calculate spatially unbounded domains, thereby avoiding the introduction of an artificial timelike outer boundary. We construct in spherical symmetry an explicit scri-fixing gauge, i.e. a conformal and a coordinate gauge in which the spatial coordinate location of null infinity is independent of time so that no resolution loss in the physical part of the conformal extension appears. Going beyond spherical symmetry, we develop a method to include null infinity in the computational domain. With this method, hyperboloidal initial value problems for the Einstein equations can be solved in a scri-fixing general wave gauge. To study spatial infinity, we discuss the conformal Gauss gauge and the reduced general conformal field equations from a numerical point of view. This leads us to the first numerical calculation of the entire Schwarzschild-Kruskal solution including spatial, null and timelike infinity and the domain close to the singularity. After developing a three dimensional, frame based evolution code with smooth inner and outer boundaries we calculate a radiative axisymmetric vacuum solution in a neighbourhood of spatial infinity represented as a cylinder including a piece of null infinity. In this context, a certain component of the rescaled Weyl tensor representing the radiation field is calculated unambiguously with respect to an adapted tetrad at null infinity

Effective source approach to self-force calculations

Numerical evaluation of the self-force on a point particle is made difficult by the use of delta functions as sources. Recent methods for self-force calculations avoid delta functions altogether, using instead a finite and extended "effective source" for a point particle. We provide a review of the general principles underlying this strategy, using the specific example of a scalar point charge moving in a black hole spacetime. We also report on two new developments: (i) the construction and evaluation of an effective source for a scalar charge moving along a generic orbit of an arbitrary spacetime, and (ii) the successful implementation of hyperboloidal slicing that significantly improves on previous treatments of boundary conditions used for effective-source-based self-force calculations. Finally, we identify some of the key issues related to the effective source approach that will need to be addressed by future work.Comment: Invited review for NRDA/Capra 2010 (Theory Meets Data Analysis at Comparable and Extreme Mass Ratios), Perimeter Institute, June 2010, CQG special issue - 22 pages, 8 figure

Numerical investigation of the late-time Kerr tails

The late-time behavior of a scalar field on fixed Kerr background is examined in a numerical framework incorporating the techniques of conformal compactification and hyperbolic initial value formulation. The applied code is 1+(1+2) as it is based on the use of the spectral method in the angular directions while in the time-radial section fourth order finite differencing, along with the method of lines, is applied. The evolution of various types of stationary and non-stationary pure multipole initial states are investigated. The asymptotic decay rates are determined not only in the domain of outer communication but along the event horizon and at future null infinity as well. The decay rates are found to be different for stationary and non-stationary initial data, and they also depend on the fall off properties of the initial data toward future null infinity. The energy and angular momentum transfers are found to show significantly different behavior in the initial phase of the time evolution. The quasinormal ringing phase and the tail phase are also investigated. In the tail phase, the decay exponents for the energy and angular momentum losses at future null infinity are found to be smaller than at the horizon which is in accordance with the behavior of the field itself and it means that at late times the energy and angular momentum falling into the black hole become negligible in comparison with the energy and angular momentum radiated toward future null infinity. The energy and angular momentum balances are used as additional verifications of the reliability of our numerical method.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figure

On the Use of Multipole Expansion in Time Evolution of Non-linear Dynamical Systems and Some Surprises Related to Superradiance

A new numerical method is introduced to study the problem of time evolution of generic non-linear dynamical systems in four-dimensional spacetimes. It is assumed that the time level surfaces are foliated by a one-parameter family of codimension two compact surfaces with no boundary and which are conformal to a Riemannian manifold C. The method is based on the use of a multipole expansion determined uniquely by the induced metric structure on C. The approach is fully spectral in the angular directions. The dynamics in the complementary 1+1 Lorentzian spacetime is followed by making use of a fourth order finite differencing scheme with adaptive mesh refinement. In checking the reliability of the introduced new method the evolution of a massless scalar field on a fixed Kerr spacetime is investigated. In particular, the angular distribution of the evolving field in to be superradiant scattering is studied. The primary aim was to check the validity of some of the recent arguments claiming that the Penrose process, or its field theoretical correspondence---superradiance---does play crucial role in jet formation in black hole spacetimes while matter accretes onto the central object. Our findings appear to be on contrary to these claims as the angular dependence of a to be superradiant scattering of a massless scalar field does not show any preference of the axis of rotation. In addition, the process of superradiance, in case of a massless scalar field, was also investigated. On contrary to the general expectations no energy extraction from black hole was found even though the incident wave packets was fine tuned to be maximally superradiant. Instead of energy extraction the to be superradiant part of the incident wave packet fails to reach the ergoregion rather it suffers a total reflection which appears to be a new phenomenon.Comment: 49 pages, 11 figure

Implementation of standard testbeds for numerical relativity

We discuss results that have been obtained from the implementation of the initial round of testbeds for numerical relativity which was proposed in the first paper of the Apples with Apples Alliance. We present benchmark results for various codes which provide templates for analyzing the testbeds and to draw conclusions about various features of the codes. This allows us to sharpen the initial test specifications, design a new test and add theoretical insight.Comment: Corrected versio

Holographic Reconstruction and Renormalization in Asymptotically Ricci-flat Spacetimes

In this work we elaborate on an extension of the AdS/CFT framework to a subclass of gravitational theories with vanishing cosmological constant. By building on earlier ideas, we construct a correspondence between Ricci-flat spacetimes admitting asymptotically hyperbolic hypersurfaces and a family of conformal field theories on a codimension two manifold at null infinity. By truncating the gravity theory to the pure gravitational sector, we find the most general spacetime asymptotics, renormalize the gravitational action, reproduce the holographic stress tensors and Ward identities of the family of CFTs and show how the asymptotics is mapped to and reconstructed from conformal field theory data. In even dimensions, the holographic Weyl anomalies identify the bulk time coordinate with the spectrum of central charges with characteristic length the bulk Planck length. Consistency with locality in the bulk time direction requires a notion of locality in this spectrum.Comment: 44 pages, 4 figures. v2: minor changes in section

Error-analysis and comparison to analytical models of numerical waveforms produced by the NRAR Collaboration

The Numerical-Relativity-Analytical-Relativity (NRAR) collaboration is a joint effort between members of the numerical relativity, analytical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The goal of the NRAR collaboration is to produce numerical-relativity simulations of compact binaries and use them to develop accurate analytical templates for the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration to use in detecting gravitational-wave signals and extracting astrophysical information from them. We describe the results of the first stage of the NRAR project, which focused on producing an initial set of numerical waveforms from binary black holes with moderate mass ratios and spins, as well as one non-spinning binary configuration which has a mass ratio of 10. All of the numerical waveforms are analysed in a uniform and consistent manner, with numerical errors evaluated using an analysis code created by members of the NRAR collaboration. We compare previously-calibrated, non-precessing analytical waveforms, notably the effective-one-body (EOB) and phenomenological template families, to the newly-produced numerical waveforms. We find that when the binary's total mass is ~100-200 solar masses, current EOB and phenomenological models of spinning, non-precessing binary waveforms have overlaps above 99% (for advanced LIGO) with all of the non-precessing-binary numerical waveforms with mass ratios <= 4, when maximizing over binary parameters. This implies that the loss of event rate due to modelling error is below 3%. Moreover, the non-spinning EOB waveforms previously calibrated to five non-spinning waveforms with mass ratio smaller than 6 have overlaps above 99.7% with the numerical waveform with a mass ratio of 10, without even maximizing on the binary parameters.Comment: 51 pages, 10 figures; published versio

Hyperboloidal foliations and scri-fixing

We discuss a gauge choice which allows us to avoid the introduction of artificial timelike outer boundaries in numerical studies of test fields based on a 3+1 decomposition of asymptotically flat background spacetimes. The main idea is to include null infinity in the computational domain by conformally compactifying the metric on hyperboloidal foliations and fixing the spatial coordinate location of null infinity, i.e. scri-fixing. We construct such coordinates explicitly on Minkowski, Schwarzschild and Kerr spacetimes.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures. Published versio

Error-analysis and comparison to analytical models of numerical waveforms produced by the NRAR Collaboration

The Numerical-Relativity-Analytical-Relativity (NRAR) collaboration is a joint effort between members of the numerical relativity, analytical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The goal of the NRAR collaboration is to produce numerical-relativity simulations of compact binaries and use them to develop accurate analytical templates for the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration to use in detecting gravitational-wave signals and extracting astrophysical information from them. We describe the results of the first stage of the NRAR project, which focused on producing an initial set of numerical waveforms from binary black holes with moderate mass ratios and spins, as well as one non-spinning binary configuration which has a mass ratio of 10. All of the numerical waveforms are analysed in a uniform and consistent manner, with numerical errors evaluated using an analysis code created by members of the NRAR collaboration. We compare previously-calibrated, non-precessing analytical waveforms, notably the effective-one-body (EOB) and phenomenological template families, to the newly-produced numerical waveforms. We find that when the binary's total mass is ~100-200 solar masses, current EOB and phenomenological models of spinning, non-precessing binary waveforms have overlaps above 99% (for advanced LIGO) with all of the non-precessing-binary numerical waveforms with mass ratios <= 4, when maximizing over binary parameters. This implies that the loss of event rate due to modelling error is below 3%. Moreover, the non-spinning EOB waveforms previously calibrated to five non-spinning waveforms with mass ratio smaller than 6 have overlaps above 99.7% with the numerical waveform with a mass ratio of 10, without even maximizing on the binary parameters