Initial data for superposed rotating black holes

The standard approach to initial data for both analytic and numerical computations of black hole collisions has been to use conformally-flat initial geometry. Among other advantages, this choice allows the simple superposition of holes with arbitrary mass, location and spin. The conformally flat restriction, however, is inappropriate to the study of Kerr holes, for which the standard constant-time slice is not conformally flat. Here we point out that for axisymmetric arrangements of rotating holes, a nonconformally flat form of the 3-geometry can be chosen which allows fairly simple superposition of Kerr holes with arbitrary mass and spin. We present initial data solutions representing locally Kerr holes at large separation, and representing rotating holes close enough so that outside a common horizon the spacetime geometry is a perturbation of a single Kerr hole.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Telling Tails In The Presence Of A Cosmological Constant

We study the evolution of massless scalar waves propagating on spherically symmetric spacetimes with a non-zero cosmological constant. Considering test fields on both Schwarzschild-de Sitter and Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter backgrounds, we demonstrate the existence of exponentially decaying tails at late times. Interestingly the l=0 mode asymptotes to a non-zero value, contrasting the asymptotically flat situation. We also compare these results, for l=0, with a numerical integration of the Einstein-Scalar field equations, finding good agreement between the two. Finally, the significance of these results to the study of the Cauchy horizon stability in black hole-de Sitter spacetimes is discussed.Comment: 7 pages (including 10 postscript figures), Revtex, uses epsf.tex and twocolumn.sty. Submitted to Physical Review

Quasinormal modes and late-time tails in the background of Schwarzschild black hole pierced by a cosmic string: scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations

We have studied the quasinormal modes and the late-time tail behaviors of scalar, electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations in the Schwarzschild black hole pierced by a cosmic string. Although the metric is locally identical to that of the Schwarzschild black hole so that the presence of the string will not imprint in the motion of test particles, we found that quasinormal modes and the late-time tails can reflect physical signatures of the cosmic string. Compared with the scalar and electromagnetic fields, the gravitational perturbation decays slower, which could be more interesting to disclose the string effect in this background.Comment: 17 pages; 7 figure

Formation of a rotating hole from a close limit head-on collision

Realistic black hole collisions result in a rapidly rotating Kerr hole, but simulations to date have focused on nonrotating final holes. Using a new solution of the Einstein initial value equations we present here waveforms and radiation for an axisymmetric Kerr-hole-forming collision starting from small initial separation (the ``close limit'' approximation) of two identical rotating holes. Several new features are present in the results: (i) In the limit of small separation, the waveform is linear (not quadratic) in the separation. (ii) The waveforms show damped oscillations mixing quasinormal ringing of different multipoles.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

Quasinormal modes of Reissner-Nordstro¨\ddot{o}m Anti-de Sitter Black Holes

Complex frequencies associated with quasinormal modes for large Reissner-Nordstr$\ddot{o}$m Anti-de Sitter black holes have been computed. These frequencies have close relation to the black hole charge and do not linearly scale with the black hole temperature as in Schwarzschild Anti-de Sitter case. In terms of AdS/CFT correspondence, we found that the bigger the black hole charge is, the quicker for the approach to thermal equilibrium in the CFT. The properties of quasinormal modes for $l>0$ have also been studied.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.