Maximal Slicing for Puncture Evolutions of Schwarzschild and Reissner-Nordstr\"om Black Holes

We prove by explicit construction that there exists a maximal slicing of the Schwarzschild spacetime such that the lapse has zero gradient at the puncture. This boundary condition has been observed to hold in numerical evolutions, but in the past it was not clear whether the numerically obtained maximal slices exist analytically. We show that our analytical result agrees with numerical simulation. Given the analytical form for the lapse, we can derive that at late times the value of the lapse at the event horizon approaches the value ${3/16}\sqrt{3} \approx 0.3248$, justifying the numerical estimate of 0.3 that has been used for black hole excision in numerical simulations. We present our results for the non-extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om metric, generalizing previous constructions of maximal slices.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, published version with changes to Sec. VI

A simple construction of initial data for multiple black holes

We consider the initial data problem for several black holes in vacuum with arbitrary momenta and spins on a three space with punctures. We compactify the internal asymptotically flat regions to obtain a computational domain without inner boundaries. When treated numerically, this leads to a significant simplification over the conventional approach which is based on throats and isometry conditions. In this new setting it is possible to obtain existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Hamiltonian constraint.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX (RevTeX), minor changes, improved presentation, to appear in PR

Numerical relativity simulations of binary neutron stars

We present a new numerical relativity code designed for simulations of compact binaries involving matter. The code is an upgrade of the BAM code to include general relativistic hydrodynamics and implements state-of-the-art high-resolution-shock-capturing schemes on a hierarchy of mesh refined Cartesian grids with moving boxes. We test and validate the code in a series of standard experiments involving single neutron star spacetimes. We present test evolutions of quasi-equilibrium equal-mass irrotational binary neutron star configurations in quasi-circular orbits which describe the late inspiral to merger phases. Neutron star matter is modeled as a zero-temperature fluid; thermal effects can be included by means of a simple ideal-gas prescription. We analyze the impact that the use of different values of damping parameter in the Gamma-driver shift condition has on the dynamics of the system. The use of different reconstruction schemes and their impact in the post-merger dynamics is investigated. We compute and characterize the gravitational radiation emitted by the system. Self-convergence of the waves is tested, and we consistently estimate error-bars on the numerically generated waveforms in the inspiral phase