Related papers: Revisiting non-linearity in binary black hole merg…
The nonlinear nature of general relativity manifests prominently throughout the merger of two black holes, from the inspiral phase to the final ringdown. Notably, the quasi-normal modes generated during the ringdown phase display…
Recent gravitational wave observations include possible detections of black hole - neutron star binary mergers. As with binary black hole mergers, numerical simulations help characterize the sources. For binary systems with neutron star…
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…
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 understanding of strong-field dynamics near black-hole horizons is a long-standing and challenging prob- lem in general relativity. Recent advances in numerical relativity and in the geometric characterization of black- hole horizons…
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.…
As a black hole in a binary spirals in gradually from large separation, energy and angular momentum flow not only to infinity but also into or out of the hole. In addition, the hole's horizon area increases slowly during this process. In…
We present the results of 61 new simulations of nonprecessing spinning black hole binaries with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/3\leq q\leq1$ and individual spins covering the parameter space $-0.85\leq\alpha_{1,2}\leq0.85$. We…
Gravitationally bound supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) are thought to be a natural product of galactic mergers and growth of the large scale structure in the universe. They however remain observationally elusive, thus raising a…
In the near future, gravitational wave detection is set to become an important observational tool for astrophysics. It will provide us with an excellent means to distinguish different gravitational theories. In effective form, many…
The gravitational wave strain emitted by a perturbed black hole (BH) ringing down is typically modeled analytically using first-order BH perturbation theory. In this Letter we show that second-order effects are necessary for modeling…
We discuss the extraction of information from detected binary black hole (BBH) coalescence gravitational waves, focusing on the merger phase that occurs after the gradual inspiral and before the ringdown. Our results are: (1) If numerical…
The observed binary black hole (BBH) mergers indicate a large Galactic progenitor population continuously evolving from large orbital separations and low gravitational wave (GW) frequencies to the final merger phase. We investigate the…
By a method of population synthesis we construct a model of dark matter (DM) accretion onto binary black holes (BHs), and investigate the merger rate of the binary BHs. We find that the merger rate can weakly increase (less than 10\%).…
This is a summary of an invited talk given at the Moriond Gravitation meeting on March 31, 2025. I touch on some of the practical challenges of measuring the mass spectrum of merging binary black holes through their gravitational-wave…
Effective field theory methods suggest that some rather-general extensions of General Relativity include, or are mimicked by, certain higher-order curvature corrections, with coupling constants expected to be small but otherwise arbitrary.…
We argue that near-future detections of gravitational waves from merging black hole binaries can test a long-standing proposal, originally due Bekenstein and Mukhanov, that the areas of black hole horizons are quantized in integer multiples…
We determine the binding energy, the total gravitational wave energy flux, and the gravitational wave modes for a binary of rapidly spinning black holes, working in linearized gravity and at leading orders in the orbital velocity, but to…
Unlike traditional electromagnetic measurements, gravitational-wave observations are not affected by crowding and extinction. For this reason, compact object binaries orbiting around a massive black hole can be used as probes of the inner…
Largely motivated by the development of highly sensitive gravitational-wave detectors, our understanding of merging compact binaries and the gravitational waves they generate has improved dramatically in recent years. Breakthroughs in…