74 research outputs found
Consistency of post-Newtonian waveforms with numerical relativity
General relativity predicts the gravitational wave signatures of coalescing
binary black holes. Explicit waveform predictions for such systems, required
for optimal analysis of observational data, have so far been achieved using the
post-Newtonian (PN) approximation. The quality of this treatment is unclear,
however, for the important late-inspiral portion. We derive late-inspiral
waveforms via a complementary approach, direct numerical simulation of
Einstein's equations. We compare waveform phasing from simulations of the last
cycles of gravitational radiation from equal-mass, nonspinning black
holes with the corresponding 2.5PN, 3PN, and 3.5PN orbital phasing. We find
phasing agreement consistent with internal error estimates based on either
approach, suggesting that PN waveforms for this system are effective until the
last orbit prior to final merger.Comment: Replaced with published version -- one figure removed, text and other
figures updated for clarity of discussio
Toward faithful templates for non-spinning binary black holes using the effective-one-body approach
We present an accurate approximation of the full gravitational radiation
waveforms generated in the merger of non-eccentric systems of two non-spinning
black holes. Utilizing information from recent numerical relativity simulations
and the natural flexibility of the effective-one-body (EOB) model, we extend
the latter so that it can successfully match the numerical relativity waveforms
during the last stages of inspiral, merger and ringdown. By ``successfully''
here, we mean with phase differences < 8% of a gravitational-wave cycle
accumulated by the end of the ringdown phase, maximizing only over time of
arrival and initial phase. We obtain this result by simply adding a
4-post-Newtonian order correction in the EOB radial potential and determining
the (constant) coefficient by imposing high-matching performances with
numerical waveforms of mass ratios m1/m2 = 1, 3/2, 2 and 4, m1 and m2 being the
individual black-hole masses. The final black-hole mass and spin predicted by
the numerical simulations are used to determine the ringdown frequency and
decay time of three quasi-normal-mode damped sinusoids that are attached to the
EOB inspiral-(plunge) waveform at the EOB light-ring. The EOB waveforms might
be tested and further improved in the future by comparison with extremely long
and accurate inspiral numerical-relativity waveforms. They may already be
employed for coherent searches and parameter estimation of gravitational waves
emitted by non-spinning coalescing binary black holes with ground-based
laser-interferometer detectors.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Modeling Gravitational Recoil Using Numerical Relativity
We review the developments in modeling gravitational recoil from merging
black-hole binaries and introduce a new set of 20 simulations to test our
previously proposed empirical formula for the recoil. The configurations are
chosen to represent generic binaries with unequal masses and precessing spins.
Results of these simulations indicate that the recoil formula is accurate to
within a few km/s in the similar mass-ratio regime for the out-of-plane recoil.Comment: corrections to text, 11 pages, 1 figur
Binary black hole late inspiral: Simulations for gravitational wave observations
Coalescing binary black hole mergers are expected to be the strongest
gravitational wave sources for ground-based interferometers, such as the LIGO,
VIRGO, and GEO600, as well as the space-based interferometer LISA. Until
recently it has been impossible to reliably derive the predictions of General
Relativity for the final merger stage, which takes place in the strong-field
regime. Recent progress in numerical relativity simulations is, however,
revolutionizing our understanding of these systems. We examine here the
specific case of merging equal-mass Schwarzschild black holes in detail,
presenting new simulations in which the black holes start in the late inspiral
stage on orbits with very low eccentricity and evolve for ~1200M through ~7
orbits before merging. We study the accuracy and consistency of our simulations
and the resulting gravitational waveforms, which encompass ~14 cycles before
merger, and highlight the importance of using frequency (rather than time) to
set the physical reference when comparing models. Matching our results to PN
calculations for the earlier parts of the inspiral provides a combined waveform
with less than half a cycle of accumulated phase error through the entire
coalescence. Using this waveform, we calculate signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs)
for iLIGO, adLIGO, and LISA, highlighting the contributions from the
late-inspiral and merger-ringdown parts of the waveform which can now be
simulated numerically. Contour plots of SNR as a function of z and M show that
adLIGO can achieve SNR >~ 10 for some intermediate-mass binary black holes
(IMBBHs) out to z ~ 1, and that LISA can see massive binary black holes (MBBHs)
in the range 3x10^4 100 out to the earliest epochs
of structure formation at z > 15.Comment: 17 pages, 20 figures. Final published versio
Modeling kicks from the merger of generic black-hole binaries
Recent numerical relativistic results demonstrate that the merger of
comparable-mass spinning black holes has a maximum ``recoil kick'' of up to
\sim 4000 \kms. However the scaling of these recoil velocities with mass
ratio is poorly understood. We present new runs showing that the maximum
possible kick perpendicular to the orbital plane does not scale as
(where is the symmetric mass ratio), as previously proposed, but is more
consistent with , at least for systems with low orbital precession.
We discuss the effect of this dependence on galactic ejection scenarios and
retention of intermediate-mass black holes in globular clusters.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables. Version published in Astrophys. J. Let
A General Formula for Black Hole Gravitational Wave Kicks
Although the gravitational wave kick velocity in the orbital plane of
coalescing black holes has been understood for some time, apparently
conflicting formulae have been proposed for the dominant out-of-plane kick,
each a good fit to different data sets. This is important to resolve because it
is only the out-of-plane kicks that can reach more than 500 km/s and can thus
eject merged remnants from galaxies. Using a different ansatz for the
out-of-plane kick, we show that we can fit almost all existing data to better
than 5 %. This is good enough for any astrophysical calculation, and shows that
the previous apparent conflict was only because the two data sets explored
different aspects of the kick parameter space.Comment: 14 pages
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