The high-energy collision of two black holes
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2008-11-26 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
We study the head-on collision of two highly boosted equal mass, nonrotating black holes. We determine the waveforms, radiated energies, and mode excitation in the center of mass frame for a variety of boosts. For the first time we are able to compare analytic calculations, black hole perturbation theory, and strong field, nonlinear numerical calculations for this problem. Extrapolation of our results, which include velocities of up to 0.94c, indicate that in the ultra-relativistic regime about (14\pm 3)% of the energy is converted into gravitational waves. This gives rise to a luminosity of order 10^-2 c^5/G, the largest known so far in a black hole merger.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0806.1738,
title = {The high-energy collision of two black holes},
author = {U. Sperhake and V. Cardoso and F. Pretorius and E. Berti and J. A. Gonzalez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0806.1738},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
To match published version as recommended for reading by Phys.Rev.Lett. Editors