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With an increasing number of expected gravitational-wave detections of binary neutron star mergers, it is essential that gravitational-wave models employed for the analysis of observational data are able to describe generic compact binary…
The Bowen-York initial value data typically used in numerical relativity to represent spinning black hole are not those of a constant-time slice of the Kerr spacetime. If Bowen-York initial data are used for each black hole in a collision,…
Interaction of a binary supermassive black hole with stars in a galactic nucleus can result in changes to all the elements of the binary's orbit, including the angles that define its orientation. If the nucleus is rotating, the orientation…
The properties of precessing, coalescing binary black holes are presently inferred through comparison with two approximate models of compact binary coalescence. In this work we show these two models often disagree substantially when…
Binary black holes with spins that are aligned with the orbital angular momentum do not precess. However, post-Newtonian calculations predict that "up-down" binaries, in which the spin of the heavier (lighter) black hole is aligned…
Numerical relativity (NR) provides the most accurate waveforms for comparable-mass binary black holes but becomes prohibitively expensive for increasingly asymmetric mass ratios. Point-particle black hole perturbation theory (ppBHPT), which…
Moving puncture simulations of black hole binaries rely on a specific gauge choice that leads to approximately stationary coordinates near each black hole. Part of the shift condition is a damping parameter, which has to be properly chosen…
We study the superradiant scattering of gravitational waves by a nearly extremal black hole (dimensionless spin $a=0.99$) by numerically solving the full Einstein field equations, thus including backreaction effects. This allows us to study…
Knowledge of the spin of the black hole resulting from the merger of a generic black-hole binary is of great importance for studying the cosmological evolution of supermassive black holes. Several attempts have been made to model the spin…
Binary neutron star mergers provide insight into strong-field gravity and the properties of ultra-dense nuclear matter. These events offer the potential to search for signatures of physics beyond the standard model, including dark matter.…
The detection of gravitational waves from binary black holes (BBHs) started the hunt for their pre-merger electromagnetic emission. In that respect, numerical simulations have been looking for the "smoking gun" signal that could help…
Black holes provide a natural laboratory to study particle physics and astrophysics. When black holes are surrounded by matter fields, there will be plenty of phenomena which can have observational consequences, from which we can learn…
Astrophysically realistic black holes may have spins that are nearly extremal (i.e., close to 1 in dimensionless units). Numerical simulations of binary black holes are important tools both for calibrating analytical templates for…
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…
The late stage of the inspiral of two black holes may have important non-Newtonian effects that are unrelated to radiation reaction. To understand these effects we approximate a slowly inspiralling binary by a stationary solution to…
Recent implications of results from quantum information theory applied to black holes has led to the confusing conclusions that requires either abandoning the equivalence principle (e.g. the firewall picture), or the no-hair theorem (e.g.…
Accurate modelling of black hole binaries is critical to achieve the science goals of gravitational-wave detectors. Modelling such configurations relies strongly on calibration to numerical-relativity (NR) simulations. Binaries on…
In Kelly et al. [Phys. Rev. D, 76:024008, 2007], we presented new binary black-hole initial data adapted to puncture evolutions in numerical relativity. This data satisfies the constraint equations to 2.5 post-Newtonian order, and contains…
Highly accurate models of the gravitational-wave signal from coalescing compact binaries are built by completing analytical computations of the binary dynamics with non-perturbative information from numerical relativity (NR) simulations. In…
Measurements of the spin of stellar mass black holes (BHs) are now possible both through LIGO observations of binary BH mergers and for BHs in X-ray binary systems. The spins of BHs as inferred from LIGO observations suggest that BH spins…