Related papers: Comparison of Numerical and Post-Newtonian Wavefor…
The eccentricity of binary black-hole mergers is predicted to be an indicator of the history of their formation. In particular, eccentricity is a strong signature of dynamical formation rather than formation by stellar evolution in isolated…
In this work, we use general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations to explore the effect of spin orientation on the dynamics of gas in the vicinity of merging black holes. We present a suite of eight simulations of unequal-mass,…
Spin precession occurs in binary black holes whose spins are misaligned with the orbital angular momentum. Otherwise, the spin configuration is constant and the subsequent binary dynamics and gravitational-wave emission are much simpler. We…
Binary black holes with misaligned spins will generically induce both precession and nutation of the orbital angular momentum $\bf{L}$ about the total angular momentum $\bf{J}$. These phenomena modulate the phase and amplitude of the…
We perform a statistical analysis of the binary black hole problem in the post-Newtonian approximation by systematically sampling and evolving the parameter space of initial configurations for quasi-circular inspirals. Through a principal…
The construction of initial data for black-hole binaries usually involves the choice of free parameters that define the spins of the black holes and essentially the eccentricity of the orbit. Such parameters must be chosen carefully to…
Numerical relativity simulations of merging black holes provide the most accurate description of the binary dynamics and the emitted gravitational wave signal. However, practical considerations such as imperfect initial data and initial…
We study dynamics and radiation generation in the last few orbits and merger of a binary black hole system, applying recently developed techniques for simulations of moving black holes. Our analysis of the gravitational radiation waveforms…
We present the numerical code PRECESSION: a new open-source python module to study the dynamics of precessing black-hole binaries in the post-Newtonian regime. The code provides a comprehensive toolbox to (i) study the evolution of the…
Initial data for evolving black-hole binaries can be constructed via many techniques, and can represent a wide range of physical scenarios. However, because of the way that different schemes parameterize the physical aspects of a…
We present a comprehensive parameter-space study of binary black hole (BBH) mergers using the SEOBNRv4\_opt waveform model. Our analysis spans $\sim 10^6$ simulated waveforms across a broad range of mass ratios \( q = \frac{m_1}{m_2} \in…
In this work we study the dynamics of spinning binary black hole systems in the strong field regime. For this purpose we extract from numerical relativity simulations the binding energy, specific orbital angular momentum, and…
Recent perturbative self-force computations (Shah, Friedman & Whiting, submitted to Phys. Rev. {\bf D}, arXiv:1312.1952 [gr-qc]), both numerical and analytical, have determined that half-integral post-Newtonian terms arise in the…
To be observed and analyzed by the network of current gravitational wave detectors (LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA), and in anticipation of future third generation ground based (Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer) and space borne (LISA) detectors,…
We revisit the problem of predicting the spin magnitude and direction of the black hole resulting from the merger of two black holes with arbitrary masses and spins inspiralling in quasi-circular orbits. We do this by analyzing a catalog of…
We investigate the dynamics and gravitational-wave (GW) emission in the binary merger of equal-mass black holes as obtained from numerical relativity simulations. Results from the evolution of three sets of initial data are explored in…
Newtonian and post-Newtonian (PN) calculations indicate that the phenomenology of eccentric binary black hole (BBH) merger waveforms is significantly more complex than that of their quasi-circular counterparts. Each spherical harmonic mode…
This paper presents techniques and results for simulations of unequal mass, non-spinning black hole binaries with pseudo-spectral methods. Specifically, we develop an efficient root-finding procedure to ensure the black hole initial data…
The post-Newtonian formalism plays an integral role in the models used to extract information from gravitational wave data, but models that incorporate this formalism are inherently approximations. Disagreement between an approximate model…
We study the phenomenology of non-spinning eccentric binary black hole (BBH) mergers using numerical relativity (NR) waveforms and \texttt{EccentricIMR} waveform model, as presented in Ref. \cite{Hinder:2017sxy} (Hinder, Kidder, and…