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Spurious junk radiation in the initial data for binary black hole numerical simulations has been an issue of concern. The radiation affects the masses and spins of the black holes, modifying their orbital dynamics and thus potentially…
The characteristic initial value problem has been implemented as a robust computational algorithm (the PITT NULL CODE), with direct application to binary black holes. The event horizon can be analyzed by characteristic techniques as a…
Activities in data analysis and numerical simulation of gravitational waves have to date largely proceeded independently. In this work we study how waveforms obtained from numerical simulations could be effectively used within the data…
The astrophysical origins of the binary black hole systems seen with gravitational waves are still not well understood. However, features in the distribution of black-hole masses, spins, redshifts, and eccentricities provide clues into how…
We compare GW150914 directly to simulations of coalescing binary black holes in full general relativity, accounting for all the spin-weighted quadrupolar modes, and separately accounting for all the quadrupolar and octopolar modes.…
We consider the numerical evolution of black hole initial data sets, consisting of single black holes distorted by strong gravitational waves, with a full 3D, nonlinear evolution code. These data sets mimic the late stages of coalescing…
We construct initial data corresponding to a single perturbed Kerr black hole in vacuum. These data are defined on specific hyperboloidal ("ACMC-") slices on which the mean extrinsic curvature K asymptotically approaches a constant at…
We perform the first fully nonlinear numerical simulations of black-hole binaries with mass ratios 100:1. Our technique for evolving such extreme mass ratios is based on the moving puncture approach with a new gauge condition and an optimal…
In General Relativity, the spacetimes of black holes have three fundamental properties: (i) they are the same, to lowest order in spin, as the metrics of stellar objects; (ii) they are independent of mass, when expressed in geometric units;…
Several improvements in numerical methods and gauge choice are presented that make it possible now to perform simulations of the merger and ringdown phases of "generic" binary black-hole evolutions using the pseudo-spectral evolution code…
We apply the puncture approach to conformal thin-sandwich black-hole initial data. We solve numerically the conformal thin-sandwich puncture (CTSP) equations for a single black hole with non-zero linear momentum. We show that conformally…
We present an alternative approach to setting initial data in general relativity. We do not use a conformal decomposition, but instead express the 3-metric in terms of a given unit vector field and one unknown scalar field. In the case of…
The production of numerical relativity waveforms that describe quasicircular binary black hole mergers requires high-quality initial data, and an algorithm to iteratively reduce residual eccentricity. To date, these tools remain closed…
We perform a set of 38 numerical simulations of equal-mass BH binaries in a configuration where the BH spins in the binary are equal in both magnitude and direction, to study precession effects. We vary the initial direction of the total…
To describe a general bound binary black hole system, we need to consider orbital eccentricity and the misalignment of black holes' spin vectors with respect to the orbital angular momentum. While binary black holes produced through many…
We demonstrate that discrete self-similarity (DSS), originally discovered in the collapse of a massless scalar field in an asymptotically flat system, survives in primordial black hole (PBH) formation within an expanding cosmological…
Binary black holes formed via different pathways are predicted to have distinct spin properties. Measuring these properties with gravitational waves provides an opportunity to unveil the origins of binary black holes. Recent work draws…
We present a major update to the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration's catalog of binary black hole simulations. Using highly efficient spectral methods implemented in the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC), we have nearly doubled…
Motivated by the possibility of observing gravitational waves from merging black holes whose spins are nearly extremal (i.e., 1 in dimensionless units), we present numerical waveforms from simulations of merging black holes with the highest…
The observation of gravitational-wave signals from merging black-hole binaries enables direct measurement of the properties of the black holes. An individual observation allows measurement of the black-hole masses, but only limited…