Related papers: Physics and Initial Data for Multiple Black Hole S…
I construct initial data for equal-mass irrotational binary black holes using the conformal thin-sandwich puncture (CTSP) approach. I locate quasi-circular orbits using the effective-potential method, and estimate the location of the…
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…
Gravitational wave astronomy has opened an unprecedented window onto tests of gravity and fundamental physics in the strong-field regime. In this study, we examine a series of well-motivated deviations from the classical Kerr solution of…
Spacetime is foliated by spatial hypersurfaces in the 3+1 split of General Relativity. The initial value problem then consists of specifying initial data for all relevant fields on one such a spatial hypersurface. These fields are the…
We present the first fully-nonlinear numerical study of the dynamics of highly spinning black-hole binaries. We evolve binaries from quasicircular orbits (as inferred from Post-Newtonian theory), and find that the last stages of the orbital…
We study stable circular orbits in spherically symmetric AdS black holes in various dimensions and their limiting innermost stable circular orbits (ISCOs). We provide analytic expressions for their size, angular velocity and angular…
The standard approach to initial data for both analytic and numerical computations of black hole collisions has been to use conformally-flat initial geometry. Among other advantages, this choice allows the simple superposition of holes with…
We present improvements to construction of binary black hole initial data used in SpEC (the Spectral Einstein Code). We introduce new boundary conditions for the extended conformal thin sandwich elliptic equations that enforce the excision…
The behavior of merging black holes (including the emitted gravitational waves and the properties of the remnant) can currently be computed only by numerical simulations. This paper introduces ten numerical relativity simulations of binary…
The construction of initial-data sets representing binary black-hole configurations in quasi-circular orbits is studied in the context of the conformal-imaging formalism. An effective-potential approach for locating quasi-circular orbits is…
We study analytically a black-hole-ring system which is composed of a stationary axisymmetric ring of particles in orbit around a perturbed Kerr black hole of mass $M$. In particular, we calculate the shift in the orbital frequency of the…
Motivated by a geometric understanding of the angular velocity of a Kerr black hole in terms of a quasi-conformal map that describes a 2d Beltrami fluid flow, a new way to construct initial data sets for binary rotating black holes by…
We solve the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints of general relativity for two black holes with nearly extremal spins and relativistic boosts in the puncture formalism. We use a non-conformally-flat ansatz with an attenuated superposition…
In the last five years, gravitational-wave astronomy has gone from a purely theoretical field into a thriving experimental science. Many gravitational-wave signals, emitted by stellar-mass binary black holes and binary neutron stars, have…
For a self-gravitating particle of mass \mu in orbit around a Kerr black hole of mass M >> \mu, we compute the O(\mu/M) shift in the frequency of the innermost stable circular equatorial orbit (ISCEO) due to the conservative piece of the…
Using the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon equations together with the Tulczyjew spin-supplementary condition, we study the circular orbits of a spinning test particle moving in the equatorial plane of a quantum improved Rotating Black Hole (RBH)…
We determine the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of binary neutron stars (BNSs) by performing dynamical simulations in full general relativity. Evolving quasiequilibrium (QE) binaries that begin at different separations, we bracket…
A new numerical method to construct binary black hole/neutron star initial data is presented. The method uses three spherical coordinate patches; Two of these are centered at the binary compact objects and cover a neighborhood of each…
The first direct detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes open a unique window into the binary black hole formation environment. One promising environmental signature is the angular distribution of the black hole…
Misner initial data are a standard example of time-symmetric initial data with two apparent horizons. Compact formulae describing such data are presented in the cases of equal or non-equal masses (i.e. isometric or non-isometric horizons).…