Related papers: High-accuracy waveforms for binary black hole insp…
We present the results of 74 new simulations of nonprecessing spinning black hole binaries with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/7\leq q\leq1$ and individual spins covering the parameter space $-0.95\leq\alpha_{1,2}\leq0.95$ with one…
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…
Binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected via gravitational waves are addressing key open questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. Our scientific conclusions rely on extracting accurate source parameters, for which we…
A general method is presented for estimating the uncertainty in hybrid models of gravitational waveforms from binary black-hole systems with arbitrary physical parameters, and thence the highest allowable initial orbital frequency for a…
Recent advances in the description of compact binary systems have produced gravitational waveforms that include inspiral, merger and ring-down phases. Comparing results from numerical simulations with those of post-Newtonian (PN), and…
We perform a sequence of binary black hole simulations with increasingly small mass ratios, reaching to a 128:1 binary that displays 13 orbits before merger. Based on a detailed convergence study of the $q=m_1/m_2=1/15$ nonspinning case, we…
This a particularly exciting time for gravitational wave physics. Ground-based gravitational wave detectors are now operating at a sensitivity such that gravitational radiation may soon be directly detected, and recently several groups have…
We perform a systematic study to explore the accuracy with which the parameters of intermediate-mass black-hole binary systems can be measured from their gravitational wave (GW) signatures using second-generation GW detectors. We make use…
We discuss the transition from quasi-circular inspiral to plunge of a system of two nonrotating black holes of masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ in the extreme mass ratio limit $m_1m_2\ll (m_1+m_2)^2$. In this limit, we compare the merger waveforms…
In a binary black hole merger, it is known that the inspiral portion of the waveform corresponds to two distinct horizons orbiting each other, and the merger and ringdown signals correspond to the final horizon being formed and settling…
The gravitational radiation emitted during the merger of a black hole with a neutron star is rather similar to the radiation from the merger of two black holes when the neutron star is not tidally disrupted. When tidal disruption occurs,…
Astrophysical black holes could be nearly extremal (that is, rotating nearly as fast as possible); therefore, nearly extremal black holes could be among the binaries that current and future gravitational-wave observatories will detect.…
Higher-order gravitational wave modes from quasi-circular, spinning, non-precessing binary black hole mergers encode key information about these systems' nonlinear dynamics. We model these waveforms using transformer architectures,…
The availability of accurate numerical waveforms is an important requirement for the creation and calibration of reliable waveform models for gravitational wave astrophysics. For black hole-neutron star binaries, very few accurate waveforms…
Advances in the field of numerical relativity now make it possible to calculate the final, most powerful merger phase of binary black-hole coalescence for generic binaries. The state of the art has advanced well beyond the equal-mass case…
We present a detailed descriptive analysis of the gravitational radiation from black-hole binary mergers of nonspinning black holes, based on numerical simulations of systems varying from equal-mass to a 6:1 mass ratio. Our primary goal is…
The ringdown phase following a binary black hole merger is usually assumed to be well described by a linear superposition of complex exponentials (quasinormal modes). In the strong-field conditions typical of a binary black hole merger,…
We derive an analytic phenomenological expression that predicts the final mass of the black-hole remnant resulting from the merger of a generic binary system of black holes on quasi-circular orbits. Besides recovering the correct…
Characterizing the properties of black holes is one of the most important science objectives for gravitational-wave observations. Astrophysical evidence suggests that black holes that are nearly extremal (i.e. spins near the theoretical…
We describe in detail full numerical and perturbative techniques to compute the gravitational radiation from intermediate-mass-ratio black-hole-binary inspirals and mergers. We perform a series of full numerical simulations of nonspinning…