Related papers: The Fourth RIT binary black hole simulations catal…
We review the properties of 40 X-ray binaries that contain either a confirmed black hole or a black hole candidate. After discussing briefly the significance of these Galactic black holes to both astronomy and physics, we present basic data…
We explore spinning, precessing, unequal mass binary black holes to display the long term orbital angular momentum, $\vec{L}$, flip dynamics. We study two prototypical cases of binaries with mass ratios $q=1/7$ and $q=1/15$ and a misaligned…
We perform a parameter study of non-spinning, equal and unequal mass black hole binaries on generic, eccentric orbits in numerical relativity. The linear momentum considered ranges from that of a circular orbit to ten times that value. We…
We revisit the modeling of the properties of the remnant black hole resulting the merger of a black-hole binary as a function of the parameters of the binary. We provide a set of empirical formulas for the final mass, spin and recoil…
We have used our new technique for fully numerical evolutions of orbiting black-hole binaries without excision to model the last orbit and merger of an equal-mass black-hole system. We track the trajectories of the individual apparent…
Using the Reduced Basis approach, we efficiently compress and accurately represent the space of waveforms for non-precessing binary black hole inspirals, which constitutes a four dimensional parameter space (two masses, two spin…
A general method is presented for estimating the uncertainty in hybrid models of gravitational waveforms from binary black-hole systems with arbitrary physical parameters, and thence the highest allowable initial orbital frequency for a…
We present results from a new code for binary black hole evolutions using the moving-puncture approach, implementing finite differences in generalised coordinates, and allowing the spacetime to be covered with multiple communicating…
We present the first comparison between numerical relativity (NR) simulations of an eccentric binary black hole system with corresponding post-Newtonian (PN) results. We evolve an equal-mass, non-spinning configuration with an initial…
Orbital eccentricity is a key signature of dynamical binary black hole formation. The gravitational waves from a coalescing binary contain information about its orbital eccentricity, which may be measured if the binary retains sufficient…
We revisit the problem of predicting the spin magnitude and direction of the black hole resulting from the merger of two black holes with arbitrary masses and spins inspiralling in quasi-circular orbits. We do this by analyzing a catalog of…
The study of unbound binary-black-hole encounters provides a gauge-invariant approach to exploring strong-field gravitational interactions in two-body systems, which can subsequently inform waveform models for bound orbits. In this work, we…
Black hole binaries on non-eccentric orbits form an important subclass of gravitational wave sources, but it is a non-trivial issue to construct numerical initial data with minimal initial eccentricity for numerical simulations. We compute…
Numerical relativity simulations of merging black holes provide the most accurate description of the binary dynamics and the emitted gravitational wave signal. However, practical considerations such as imperfect initial data and initial…
Reducing orbital eccentricity in numerical relativity simulations of binary black holes is essential for producing astrophysically relevant gravitational wave models, as many of these systems are expected to be near-circular in nature.…
We study the spin dynamics of individual black holes in a binary system. In particular we focus on the polar precession of spins and the possibility of a complete flip of spins with respect to the orbital plane. We perform a full numerical…
We present $\texttt{ENIGMA}$, a time domain, inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform model that describes non-spinning binary black holes systems that evolve on moderately eccentric orbits. The inspiral evolution is described using a consistent…
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 determine the mass-ratio, eccentricity and binary inclination angles that maximize the contribution of the higher-order waveform multipoles $(\ell, \, |m|)= \{(2,\,2),\, (2,\,1),\, (3,\,3),\, (3,\,2), \, (3,\,1),\, (4,\,4),\, (4,\,3),\,…
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…