Related papers: Initial data transients in binary black hole evolu…
Initial data are the starting point for any numerical simulation. In the case of numerical relativity, Einstein's equations constrain our choices of these initial data. We will examine several of the formalisms used for specifying Cauchy…
Non-continuous "jumps" of Apparent Horizons occur generically in 3+1 (binary) black hole evolutions. The dynamical trapping horizon framework suggests a spacetime picture in which these "Apparent Horizon jumps" are understood as spatial…
Approximate solutions to the Einstein field equations are a valuable tool to investigate gravitational phenomena. An important aspect of any approximation is to investigate and quantify its regime of validity. We present a study that…
Traditional black-hole binary puncture initial data is conformally flat. This unphysical assumption is coupled with a lack of radiation signature from the binary's past life. As a result, waveforms extracted from evolutions of this data…
We discuss the initial value problem of general relativity in its recently unified Lagrangian and Hamiltonian pictures and present a multi-domain pseudo-spectral collocation method to solve the resulting coupled nonlinear partial…
Standard puncture initial data have been widely used for numerical binary black hole evolutions despite their shortcomings, most notably the inherent lack of gravitational radiation at the initial time that is later followed by a burst of…
An orbiting black hole binary will generate strong gravitational radiation signatures, making these binaries important candidates for detection in gravitational wave observatories. The gravitational radiation is characterized by the orbital…
Construction of binary black hole initial data is a prerequisite for numerical evolutions of binary black holes. This paper reports improvements to the binary black hole initial data solver in the Spectral Einstein Code, to allow robust…
We compare the results of constructing binary black hole initial data with three different decompositions of the constraint equations of general relativity. For each decomposition we compute the initial data using a superposition of two…
A unified general approach is presented for construction of solutions of the characteristic initial value problems for various integrable hyperbolic reductions of Einstein's equations for space-times with two commuting isometries in General…
The starting point of any general relativistic numerical simulation is a solution of the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints that (ideally) represents an astrophysically realistic scenario. We present a new method to produce initial data…
We take further steps in the development of the characteristic approach to enable handling the physical problem of a compact self-gravitating object, such as a neutron star, in close orbit around a black hole. We examine different options…
From Einstein's theory we know that besides the electromagnetic spectrum, objects like quasars, active galactic nuclei, pulsars and black holes also generate a physical signal of purely gravitational nature. The actual form of the signal is…
To observe the dynamic formation of black holes in general relativity, one essentially needs to prove that closed trapped surfaces form during evolution from initial data that do not already contain trapped surfaces. We discuss the recent…
We extend Dain's construction of a geometric invariant characterising static initial data sets for the vacuum Einstein field equations to situations with a non-vanishing extrinsic curvature. This invariant gives a measure of how much the…
We explore whether a new method to solve the constraints of Einstein's equations, which does not involve elliptic equations, can be applied to provide initial data for black holes. We show that this method can be successfully applied to a…
The conformal method for constructing initial data for Einstein's equations is presented in both the Hamiltonian and Lagrangian picture (extrinsic curvature decomposition and conformal thin sandwich formalism, respectively), and advantages…
We present approximate analytical solutions to the Hamiltonian and momentum constraint equations, corresponding to systems composed of two black holes with arbitrary linear and angular momentum. The analytical nature of these initial data…
We present a new numerical code developed for the evolution of binary black-hole spacetimes using different initial data and evolution techniques. The code is demonstrated to produce state-of-the-art simulations of orbiting and inspiralling…
With the goal of taking a step toward the construction of astrophysically realistic initial data for numerical simulations of black holes, we for the first time derive a family of fully general relativistic initial data based on…