391 research outputs found
The Final Merger of Comparable Mass Binary Black Holes
A remarkable series of breakthroughs in numerical relativity modeling of black hole binary mergers has occurred over the past few years. This paper provides a general overview of these exciting developments, focusing on recent progress in merger simulations and calculations of the resulting gravitational waveforms
Impact of LISA's low frequency sensitivity on observations of massive black hole mergers
LISA will be able to detect gravitational waves from inspiralling massive
black hole (MBH) binaries out to redshifts z > 10. If the binary masses and
luminosity distances can be extracted from the LISA data stream, this
information can be used to reveal the merger history of MBH binaries and their
host galaxies in the evolving universe. Since this parameter extraction
generally requires that LISA observe the inspiral for a significant fraction of
its yearly orbit, carrying out this program requires adequate sensitivity at
low frequencies, f < 10^{-4} Hz. Using several candidate low frequency
sensitivities, we examine LISA's potential for characterizing MBH binary
coalescences at redshifts z > 1.Comment: Submitted to the Proceedings of the 5th International LISA Symposium,
Classical and Quantum Gravit
Black-hole binaries, gravitational waves, and numerical relativity
Understanding the predictions of general relativity for the dynamical
interactions of two black holes has been a long-standing unsolved problem in
theoretical physics. Black-hole mergers are monumental astrophysical events,
releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the form of gravitational radiation,
and are key sources for both ground- and space-based gravitational-wave
detectors. The black-hole merger dynamics and the resulting gravitational
waveforms can only be calculated through numerical simulations of Einstein's
equations of general relativity. For many years, numerical relativists
attempting to model these mergers encountered a host of problems, causing their
codes to crash after just a fraction of a binary orbit could be simulated.
Recently, however, a series of dramatic advances in numerical relativity has
allowed stable, robust black-hole merger simulations. This remarkable progress
in the rapidly maturing field of numerical relativity, and the new
understanding of black-hole binary dynamics that is emerging is chronicled.
Important applications of these fundamental physics results to astrophysics, to
gravitational-wave astronomy, and in other areas are also discussed.Comment: 54 pages, 42 figures. Some typos corrected & references updated.
Essentially final published versio
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
On the Geometry of Planar Domain Walls
The Geometry of planar domain walls is studied. It is argued that the planar
walls indeed have plane symmetry. In the Minkowski coordinates the walls are
mapped into revolution paraboloids.Comment: 11 paghoj, Late
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
Can Gravitational Waves Prevent Inflation?
To investigate the cosmic no hair conjecture, we analyze numerically
1-dimensional plane symmetrical inhomogeneities due to gravitational waves in
vacuum spacetimes with a positive cosmological constant. Assuming periodic
gravitational pulse waves initially, we study the time evolution of those waves
and the nature of their collisions. As measures of inhomogeneity on each
hypersurface, we use the 3-dimensional Riemann invariant and the electric and magnetic parts of
the Weyl tensor. We find a temporal growth of the curvature in the waves'
collision region, but the overall expansion of the universe later overcomes
this effect. No singularity appears and the result is a ``no hair" de Sitter
spacetime. The waves we study have amplitudes between and widths between ,
where , the horizon scale of de Sitter spacetime. This
supports the cosmic no hair conjecture.Comment: LaTeX, 11 pages, 3 figures are available on request <To
[email protected] (Hisa-aki SHINKAI)>, WU-AP/29/9
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