Related papers: Horizons in a binary black hole merger I: Geometry…
We study in detail the dynamics and stability of marginally trapped surfaces during a binary black hole merger. This is the second in a two-part study. The first part studied the basic geometric aspects of the world tubes traced out by the…
We investigate the generic behaviour of marginally trapped tubes (roughly time-evolved apparent horizons) using simple, spherically symmetric examples of dust and scalar field collapse/accretion onto pre-existing black holes. We find that…
The behavior of quasi-local black hole horizons in a binary black hole merger is studied numerically. We compute the horizon multipole moments, fluxes and other quantities on black hole horizons throughout the merger. These lead to a better…
In this second part of a two-part paper, we discuss numerical simulations of a head-on merger of two non-spinning black holes. We resolve the fate of the original two apparent horizons by showing that after intersecting, their world tubes…
A popular approach in numerical simulations of black hole binaries is to model black holes as punctures in the fabric of spacetime. The location and the properties of the black hole punctures are tracked with apparent horizons, namely…
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…
We analyse the formation and evolution of the event horizon of a black hole binary merger when the black holes are charged. We find that the presence of charge influences the properties of the merger and can be useful for investigating the…
We find the first binary black hole event horizon with a toroidal topology. It had been predicted that generically the event horizons of merging black holes should briefly have a toroidal topology, but such a phase has never been seen prior…
An important question in binary black hole mergers is to connect properties of the remnant black hole to those of the two initial black holes. These properties include not only the final mass and spin of the remnant, but also higher…
We resolve the fate of the two original apparent horizons during the head-on merger of two non-spinning black holes. We show that following the appearance of the outer common horizon and subsequent inter-penetration of the original…
In this work, we uncover new features in the evolution of the deformations of the dynamical horizon geometry in a binary black hole merger scenario using numerical relativity. First, in the inspiral phase, owing to the deformations, the…
We find strong numerical evidence for a new phenomenon in a binary black hole spacetime, namely the merger of marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs). By simulating the head-on collision of two non-spinning unequal mass black holes, we…
Event horizons are the defining physical features of black hole spacetimes, and are of considerable interest in studying black hole dynamics. Here, we reconsider three techniques to localise event horizons in numerical spacetimes:…
We numerically study the algebraic properties of the Weyl tensor through the merger of two non-spinning black holes (BHs). We are particularly interested in the conjecture that for such a vacuum spacetime, which is zeroth-order…
A generic black hole merger occurs through a restructuring of creases (sharp edges) on the event horizon. This process is studied for a black hole merger in the limit of infinite mass ratio, for which constructing the event horizon reduces…
We study event horizons of non-axisymmetric black holes and show how features found in axisymmetric studies of colliding black holes and of toroidal black holes are non-generic and how new features emerge. Most of the details of black hole…
We present numerical simulations of a Kerr black hole perturbed by a pulse of ingoing gravitational radiation. For strong perturbations we find up to five concentric marginally outer trapped surfaces. These trapped surfaces appear and…
In classical numerical relativity, marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs) are the main tool to locate and characterize black holes. For five decades it has been known that during a binary merger, a new outer horizon forms around the…
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…
We have shown previously that a merger of marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs) occurs in a binary black hole merger and that there is a continuous sequence of MOTSs which connects the initial two black holes to the final one. In this…