Black-hole-binary coalescence is often divided into three stages: inspiral, merger and ringdown. The post-Newtonian (PN) approximation treats the inspiral phase, black-hole perturbation (BHP) theory describes the ringdown, and the nonlinear dynamics of spacetime characterize the merger. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid method that incorporates elements of PN and BHP theories, and we apply it to the head-on collision of black holes with transverse, anti-parallel spins. We compare our approximation technique with a full numerical-relativity simulation, and we find good agreement between the gravitational waveforms and the radiated energy and momentum. Our results suggest that PN and BHP theories may suffice to explain the main features of outgoing gravitational radiation for head-on mergers. This would further imply that linear perturbations to exact black-hole solutions can capture the nonlinear aspects of head-on binary-black-hole mergers accessible to observers far from the collision.
@article{arxiv.1007.2024,
title = {A hybrid method for understanding black-hole mergers: head-on case},
author = {David A. Nichols and Yanbei Chen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1007.2024},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
14 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, revtex4 format, v2 references added, v3 expanded discussion of comparison with numerical relativity, and small changes to match published version