English

Modeling maximum astrophysical gravitational recoil velocities

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2011-02-25 v1 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

We measure the recoil velocity as a function of spin for equal-mass, highly-spinning black-hole binaries, with spins in the orbital plane, equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. We confirm that the leading-order effect is linear in the spin and the cosine of angle between the spin direction and the infall direction at merger. We find higher-order corrections that are proportional to the odd powers in both the spin and cosine of this angle. Taking these corrections into account, we predict that the maximum recoil will be 3680+-130 km/s.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1011.0593,
  title  = {Modeling maximum astrophysical gravitational recoil velocities},
  author = {Carlos O. Lousto and Yosef Zlochower},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1011.0593},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

8 pages, 7 figures, revtex4

R2 v1 2026-06-21T16:37:42.492Z