909 research outputs found
Binary black hole merger dynamics and waveforms
We study dynamics and radiation generation in the last few orbits and merger
of a binary black hole system, applying recently developed techniques for
simulations of moving black holes. Our analysis of the gravitational radiation
waveforms and dynamical black hole trajectories produces a consistent picture
for a set of simulations with black holes beginning on circular-orbit
trajectories at a variety of initial separations. We find profound agreement at
the level of one percent among the simulations for the last orbit, merger and
ringdown. We are confident that this part of our waveform result accurately
represents the predictions from Einstein's General Relativity for the final
burst of gravitational radiation resulting from the merger of an astrophysical
system of equal-mass non-spinning black holes. The simulations result in a
final black hole with spin parameter a/m=0.69. We also find good agreement at a
level of roughly 10 percent for the radiation generated in the preceding few
orbits.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PRD, update citations, minor
change
Gauge Conditions for Moving Black Holes Without Excision
Recent demonstrations of unexcised, puncture black holes traversing freely across computational grids represent a significant advance in numerical relativity. Stable an$ accurate simulations of multiple orbits, and their radiated waves, result. This capability is critically undergirded by a careful choice of gauge. Here we present analytic considerations which suggest certain gauge choices, and numerically demonstrate their efficacy in evolving a single moving puncture
GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EXTRACTION FROM AN INSPIRALING CONFIGURATION OF MERGING BLACK HOLES
We present new techniques for evolving binary black hole systems which allow the accurate determination of gravitational waveforms directly from the wave zone region of the numerical simulations. Rather than excising the black hole interiors, our approach follows the "puncture" treatment of black holes, but utilizing a new gauge condition which allows the black holes to move successfully through the computational domain. We apply these techniques to an inspiraling binary, modeling the radiation generated during the final plunge and ringdown. We demonstrate convergence of the waveforms and and good conservation of mass-energy, with just over 3% of the system s mass converted to gravitational radiation
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
Recoiling from a Kick in the Head-On Case
Recoil "kicks" induced by gravitational radiation are expected in the inspiral and merger of black holes. Recently the numerical relativity community has begun to measure the significant kicks found when both unequal masses and spins are considered. Because understanding the cause and magnitude of each component of this kick may be complicated in inspiral simulations, we consider these effects in the context of a simple test problem. We study recoils from collisions of binaries with initially head-on trajectories, starting with the simplest case of equal masses with no spin; adding spin and varying the mass ratio, both separately and jointly. We find spin-induced recoils to be significant even in head-on configurations. Additionally, it appears that the scaling of transverse kicks with spins is consistent with post-Newtonian (PN) theory, even though the kick is generated in the nonlinear merger interaction, where PN theory should not apply. This suggests that a simple heuristic description might be effective in the estimation of spin-kicks
Theory of nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling
A nonlinear Landau-Zener model was proposed recently to describe, among a
number of applications, the nonadiabatic transition of a Bose-Einstein
condensate between Bloch bands. Numerical analysis revealed a striking
phenomenon that tunneling occurs even in the adiabatic limit as the nonlinear
parameter is above a critical value equal to the gap of avoided
crossing of the two levels. In this paper, we present analytical results that
give quantitative account of the breakdown of adiabaticity by mapping this
quantum nonlinear model into a classical Josephson Hamiltonian. In the critical
region, we find a power-law scaling of the nonadiabatic transition probability
as a function of and , the crossing rate of the energy levels.
In the subcritical regime, the transition probability still follows an
exponential law but with the exponent changed by the nonlinear effect. For
, we find a near unit probability for the transition between the
adiabatic levels for all values of the crossing rate.Comment: 9 figure
Getting a kick out of numerical relativity
Recent developments in numerical relativity have made it possible to follow
reliably the coalescence of two black holes from near the innermost stable
circular orbit to final ringdown. This opens up a wide variety of exciting
astrophysical applications of these simulations. Chief among these is the net
kick received when two unequal mass or spinning black holes merge. The
magnitude of this kick has bearing on the production and growth of supermassive
black holes during the epoch of structure formation, and on the retention of
black holes in stellar clusters. Here we report the first accurate numerical
calculation of this kick, for two nonspinning black holes in a 1.5:1 mass
ratio, which is expected based on analytic considerations to give a significant
fraction of the maximum possible recoil. We have performed multiple runs with
different initial separations, orbital angular momenta, resolutions, extraction
radii, and gauges. The full range of our kick speeds is 86--116 km s,
and the most reliable runs give kicks between 86 and 97 km s. This is
intermediate between the estimates from two recent post-Newtonian analyses and
suggests that at redshifts , halos with masses will have difficulty retaining coalesced black holes after major
mergers.Comment: Updated. Accepted by ApJ Letter
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