Related papers: Binary black holes on a budget: Simulations using …
We investigate properties of black hole (BH) binaries formed in globular clusters via dynamical processes, using direct N-body simulations. We pay attention to effects of BH mass function on the total mass and mass ratio distributions of BH…
We present the results of 2D hydrodynamical simulations of circumbinary disk accretion using the finite-volume code DISCO. This code solves the 2D viscous Navier-Stokes equations on a high-resolution moving mesh which shears with the fluid…
Simultaneous gravitational and electromagnetic wave observations of merging black hole binaries (BHBHs) can provide unique opportunities to study gravitation physics, accretion and cosmology. Here we perform fully general relativistic,…
Significant advances in numerical simulations of black-hole binaries have recently been achieved using the puncture method. We examine how and why this method works by evolving a single black hole. The coordinate singularity and hence the…
Testing general relativity in the non-linear, dynamical, strong-field regime of gravity is one of the major goals of gravitational wave astrophysics. Performing precision tests of general relativity (GR) requires numerical inspiral, merger,…
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…
Characterizing the properties of black holes is one of the most important science objectives for gravitational-wave observations. Astrophysical evidence suggests that black holes that are nearly extremal (i.e. spins near the theoretical…
A near-equal mass binary black hole can clear a central cavity in a circumbinary accretion disk; however, previous works have revealed accretion streams entering this cavity. Here we use 2D hydrodynamical simulations to study the accretion…
We construct a sequence of binary black hole puncture data derived under the assumptions (i) that the ADM mass of each puncture as measured in the asymptotically flat space at the puncture stays constant along the sequence, and (ii) that…
We construct an approximate metric that represents the spacetime of spinning binary black holes (BBH) approaching merger. We build the metric as an analytical superposition of two Kerr metrics in harmonic coordinates, where we transform…
[ABRIDGED] We study supermassive black hole binary mergers driven by angular momentum loss to small-scale gas discs. Such binaries form after major galaxy mergers, but their fate is unclear since hardening through stellar scattering becomes…
The growing number of binary black hole mergers detected through gravitational waves offers unprecedented insight into their underlying population, yet their astrophysical formation channels remain unresolved. We present a new method to…
The two established techniques for measuring black hole spin in X-ray binaries often yield conflicting results, which must be resolved before either method may be deemed robust. In practice, black hole spin measurements based on fitting the…
We present a new warped gridding scheme adapted to simulating gas dynamics in binary black hole spacetimes. The grid concentrates grid points in the vicinity of each black hole to resolve the smaller scale structures there, and rarefies…
Parameter estimation of binary-black-hole merger events in gravitational-wave data relies on matched-filtering techniques, which, in turn, depend on accurate model waveforms. Here we characterize the systematic biases introduced in…
The construction of initial data for black-hole binaries usually involves the choice of free parameters that define the spins of the black holes and essentially the eccentricity of the orbit. Such parameters must be chosen carefully to…
Distinguishing the photon output of an accreting supermassive black hole binary system from that of a single supermassive black hole accreting at the same rate is intrinsically difficult because the majority of the light emerges from near…
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 perform a sequence of binary black hole simulations with increasingly small mass ratios, reaching to a 128:1 binary that displays 13 orbits before merger. Based on a detailed convergence study of the $q=m_1/m_2=1/15$ nonspinning case, we…
The spin distribution of binary black hole mergers contains key information concerning the formation channels of these objects, and the astrophysical environments where they form, evolve and coalesce. To quantify the suitability of deep…