Simulations of black-hole binaries with unequal masses or nonprecessing spins: Accuracy, physical properties, and comparison with post-Newtonian results

Hannam, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5571-325X, Husa, Sascha, Ohme, Frank, Müller, Doreen and Brügmann, Bernd 2010. Simulations of black-hole binaries with unequal masses or nonprecessing spins: Accuracy, physical properties, and comparison with post-Newtonian results. Physical Review D 82 (12) , 124008. 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.124008

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Abstract

We present gravitational waveforms for the last orbits and merger of black-hole-binary systems along two branches of the black-hole-binary parameter space: equal-mass binaries with equal nonprecessing spins, and nonspinning unequal-mass binaries. The waveforms are calculated from numerical solutions of Einstein’s equations for black-hole binaries that complete between six and ten orbits before merger. Along the equal-mass spinning branch, the spin parameter of each black hole is χi=Si/Mi2∈[-0.85,0.85], and along the unequal-mass branch the mass ratio is q=M2/M1∈[1,4]. We discuss the construction of low-eccentricity puncture initial data for these cases, the properties of the final merged black hole, and compare the last 8–10 gravitational-wave cycles up to Mω=0.1 with the phase and amplitude predicted by standard post-Newtonian (PN) approximants. As in previous studies, we find that the phase from the 3.5PN TaylorT4 approximant is most accurate for nonspinning binaries. For equal-mass spinning binaries the 3.5PN TaylorT1 approximant (including spin terms up to only 2.5PN order) gives the most robust performance, but it is possible to treat TaylorT4 in such a way that it gives the best accuracy for spins χi>-0.75. When high-order amplitude corrections are included, the PN amplitude of the (ℓ=2, m=±2) modes is larger than the numerical relativity amplitude by between 2–4%.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Uncontrolled Keywords:	22 pp.
Publisher:	American Physical Society
ISSN:	1550-7998
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2022 08:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/27374

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