Related papers: Testing numerical relativity with the shifted gaug…
The uniqueness and rigidity theorems assert that the asymptotically flat, vacuum, stationary rotating black hole solution in general relativity must be the Kerr solution, exhibiting novel symmetries such as axisymmetry and circularity. In…
Gowdy waves, one of the standard 'apples with apples' tests, is proposed as a test-bed for constraint-preserving boundary conditions in the non-linear regime. As an illustration, energy-constraint preservation is separately tested in the Z4…
From Einstein's theory we know that besides the electromagnetic spectrum, objects like quasars, active galactic nuclei, pulsars and black holes also generate a physical signal of purely gravitational nature. The actual form of the signal is…
Detailed observations of phenomena involving black holes, be it via gravitational waves or more traditional electromagnetic means, can probe the strong field regime of the gravitational interaction. The prediction of features in such…
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…
The plunge-merger stage of the binary-black hole coalescence, when the bodies' velocities reach a large fraction of the speed of light and the gravitational-wave luminosity peaks, provides a unique opportunity to probe gravity in the…
We have developed a new numerical code to study the evolution of distorted, rotating black holes. We discuss the numerical methods and gauge conditions we developed to evolve such spacetimes. The code has been put through a series of tests,…
Tremendous progress has been made towards the solution of the binary-black-hole problem in numerical relativity. The waveforms produced by numerical relativity will play a role in gravitational wave detection as either test-beds for…
Gravitational-wave astronomy provides a promising avenue for the discovery of new physics beyond general relativity as it probes extreme curvature and ultra-relativistic dynamics. However, in the absence of a compelling alternative to…
Gravitational wave observations of compact binary mergers are already providing stringent tests of general relativity and constraints on modified gravity. Ground-based interferometric detectors will soon reach design sensitivity and they…
Space-borne gravitational wave detectors, such as the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, are expected to observe black hole coalescences to high redshift and with large signal-to-noise ratios, rendering their gravitational waves…
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…
The accurate modeling of gravitational radiation is a key issue for gravitational wave astronomy. As simulation codes reach higher accuracy, systematic errors inherent in current numerical relativity wave-extraction methods become evident,…
This article begins with a brief introduction to numerical relativity aimed at readers who have a background in applied mathematics but not necessarily in general relativity. I then introduce and summarise my work on the problem of treating…
Despite recent progress in numerical simulations of the coalescence of binary black hole systems, highly asymmetric spinning systems and the construction of accurate physical templates remain challenging and computationally expensive. We…
It is often the case in numerical relativity that schemes that are known to be convergent for well posed systems are used in evolutions of weakly hyperbolic (WH) formulations of Einstein's equations. Here we explicitly show that with…
Two new observational windows have been opened to strong gravitational physics: gravitational waves, and very long baseline interferometry. This suggests observational searches for new phenomena in this regime, and in particular for those…
We present a study of the gravitational waveforms from a series of spinning, equal-mass black hole binaries focusing on the harmonic content of the waves and the contribution of the individual harmonics to the signal-to-noise ratio. The…
The recent first detection of gravitational waves (GWs) from binary black hole mergers has spurred a renewed interest in possible deviations from General Relativity (GR), since they could be detected in the GWs emitted by such systems. Of…
Understanding the predictions of general relativity for the dynamical interactions of two black holes has been a long-standing unsolved problem in theoretical physics. Black-hole mergers are monumental astrophysical events, releasing…