Publications (41)
Horizon Pretracking
Erik Schnetter, Frank Herrmann, Denis Pollney
We introduce horizon pretracking as a method for analysing numerically generated spacetimes of merging black holes. Pretracking consists of following certain modified constant expa…
Gauge structure of the Einstein field equations in Bondi-like coordinates
Thanasis Giannakopoulos, Nigel T. Bishop, David Hilditch +2
The characteristic initial (boundary) value problem has numerous applications in general relativity (GR) involving numerical studies, and is often formulated using Bondi-like coord…
Gravitational memory in binary black hole mergers
Denis Pollney, Christian Reisswig
In addition to the dominant oscillatory gravitational wave signals produced during binary inspirals, a non-oscillatory component arises from the nonlinear "memory" effect, sourced…
Evolution of linear perturbations in spherically symmetric dust spacetimes
Sean February, Julien Larena, Chris Clarkson +1
We present results from a numerical code implementing a new method to solve the master equations describing the evolution of linear perturbations in a spherically symmetric but inh…
Accurate Evolution of Orbiting Binary Black Holes
Peter Diener, Frank Herrmann, Denis Pollney +5
We present a detailed analysis of binary black hole evolutions in the last orbit, and demonstrate consistent and convergent results for the trajectories of the individual bodies. T…
Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap
Leor Barack, Vitor Cardoso, Samaya Nissanke +203
The grand challenges of contemporary fundamental physics---dark matter, dark energy, vacuum energy, inflation and early universe cosmology, singularities and the hierarchy problem-…
Vacuum Electromagnetic Counterparts of Binary Black-Hole Mergers
Philipp Mösta, Carlos Palenzuela, Luciano Rezzolla +3
As one step towards a systematic modeling of the electromagnetic (EM) emission from an inspiralling black hole binary we consider a simple scenario in which the binary moves in a u…
Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes?
Jonathan Thornburg, Peter Diener, Denis Pollney +4
When simulating the inspiral and coalescence of a binary black-hole system, special care needs to be taken in handling the singularities. Two main techniques are used in numerical-…
General relativistic null-cone evolutions with a high-order scheme
Christian Reisswig, Nigel T. Bishop, Denis Pollney
We present a high-order scheme for solving the full non-linear Einstein equations on characteristic null hypersurfaces using the framework established by Bondi and Sachs. This form…
On the final spin from the coalescence of two black holes
Luciano Rezzolla, Enrico Barausse, Ernst Nils Dorband +4
We provide a compact analytic formula to compute the spin of the black hole produced by the coalescence of two black holes. The expression, which uses an analytic fit of numerical-…
The final spin from the coalescence of aligned-spin black-hole binaries
Luciano Rezzolla, Peter Diener, Ernst Nils Dorband +4
Determining the final spin of a black-hole (BH) binary is a question of key importance in astrophysics. Modelling this quantity in general is made difficult by the fact that it dep…
Energy versus Angular Momentum in Black Hole Binaries
Thibault Damour, Alessandro Nagar, Denis Pollney +1
Using accurate numerical relativity simulations of (nonspinning) black-hole binaries with mass ratios 1:1, 2:1 and 3:1 we compute the gauge invariant relation between the (reduced)…
Faithful Effective-One-Body waveforms of equal-mass coalescing black-hole binaries
Thibault Damour, Alessandro Nagar, Ernst Nils Dorband +2
We continue the program of constructing, within the Effective-One-Body (EOB) approach, high-accuracy analytic waveforms describing the signal emitted by inspiralling and coalescing…
Numerical solutions for the -Klein-Gordon system
Ulrich K. Beckering Vinckers, Ãlvaro de la Cruz-Dombriz, Denis Pollney
We construct a numerical relativity code based on the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura (BSSN) formulation for the gravitational quadratic Starobinsky model. By removing th…
Testing gravitational-wave searches with numerical relativity waveforms: Results from the first Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project
Benjamin Aylott, John G. Baker, William D. Boggs +74
The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational-wave data analysis communities. The purpose…
Gauge conditions for long-term numerical black hole evolutions without excision
Miguel Alcubierre, Bernd Bruegmann, Peter Diener +4
Numerical relativity has faced the problem that standard 3+1 simulations of black hole spacetimes without singularity excision and with singularity avoiding lapse and vanishing shi…
Status of NINJA: the Numerical INJection Analysis project
Benjamin Aylott, John G. Baker, William D. Boggs +74
The 2008 NRDA conference introduced the Numerical INJection Analysis project (NINJA), a new collaborative effort between the numerical relativity community and the data analysis co…
Excision without excision: the relativistic turducken
David Brown, Olivier Sarbach, Erik Schnetter +4
to turducken (turduckens, turduckening, turduckened, turduckened) [math.]: To stuff a black hole. We analyze and apply an alternative to black hole excision based on smoothing the…
Recoil velocities from equal-mass binary black-hole mergers: a systematic investigation of spin-orbit aligned configurations
Denis Pollney, Christian Reisswig, Luciano Rezzolla +8
Binary black-hole systems with spins aligned with the orbital angular momentum are of special interest, as studies indicate that this configuration is preferred in nature. If the s…
Black Hole Excision for Dynamic Black Holes
Miguel Alcubierre, Bernd Bruegmann, Denis Pollney +2
We extend previous work on 3D black hole excision to the case of distorted black holes, with a variety of dynamic gauge conditions that are able to respond naturally to the spaceti…
Testing excision techniques for dynamical 3D black hole evolutions
Miguel Alcubierre, Bernd Bruegmann, Peter Diener +4
We perform both distorted black hole evolutions and binary black hole head on collisions and compare the results of using a full grid to results obtained by excising the black hole…
Geometry and Regularity of Moving Punctures
Mark Hannam, Sascha Husa, Denis Pollney +2
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 s…
Error-analysis and comparison to analytical models of numerical waveforms produced by the NRAR Collaboration
Ian Hinder, Alessandra Buonanno, Michael Boyle +53
The Numerical-Relativity-Analytical-Relativity (NRAR) collaboration is a joint effort between members of the numerical relativity, analytical relativity and gravitational-wave data…
Energetics and phasing of nonprecessing spinning coalescing black hole binaries
Alessandro Nagar, Thibault Damour, Christian Reisswig +1
We present an improved numerical relativity (NR) calibration of the new effective-one-body (EOB) model for coalescing non precessing spinning black hole binaries recently introduce…
Constraint-preserving boundary treatment for a harmonic formulation of the Einstein equations
Jennifer Seiler, Bela Szilagyi, Denis Pollney +1
We present a set of well-posed constraint-preserving boundary conditions for a first-order in time, second-order in space, harmonic formulation of the Einstein equations. The bound…
The NINJA-2 catalog of hybrid post-Newtonian/numerical-relativity waveforms for non-precessing black-hole binaries
P. Ajith, Michael Boyle, Duncan A. Brown +45
The Numerical INJection Analysis (NINJA) project is a collaborative effort between members of the numerical relativity and gravitational wave data analysis communities. The purpose…
Initial data transients in binary black hole evolutions
Nigel Bishop, Denis Pollney, Christian Reisswig
We describe a method for initializing characteristic evolutions of the Einstein equations using a linearized solution corresponding to purely outgoing radiation. This allows for a…
An explicit harmonic code for black-hole evolution using excision
Bela Szilagyi, Denis Pollney, Luciano Rezzolla +2
We describe an explicit in time, finite-difference code designed to simulate black holes by using the excision method. The code is based upon the harmonic formulation of the Einste…
Gravitational-wave detectability of equal-mass black-hole binaries with aligned spins
Christian Reisswig, Sascha Husa, Luciano Rezzolla +3
Binary black-hole systems with spins aligned or anti-aligned to the orbital angular momentum provide the natural ground to start detailed studies of the influence of strong-field s…
Numerical convergence of model Cauchy-characteristic extraction and matching
Thanasis Giannakopoulos, Nigel T. Bishop, David Hilditch +2
Gravitational waves provide a powerful enhancement to our understanding of fundamental physics. To make the most of their detection we need to accurately model the entire process o…
High accuracy binary black hole simulations with an extended wave zone
Denis Pollney, Christian Reisswig, Erik Schnetter +2
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…
Notes on the integration of numerical relativity waveforms
Christian Reisswig, Denis Pollney
A primary goal of numerical relativity is to provide estimates of the wave strain, , from strong gravitational wave sources, to be used in detector templates. The simulations, h…
The Samurai Project: verifying the consistency of black-hole-binary waveforms for gravitational-wave detection
Mark Hannam, Sascha Husa, John G. Baker +16
We quantify the consistency of numerical-relativity black-hole-binary waveforms for use in gravitational-wave (GW) searches with current and planned ground-based detectors. We comp…
Algorithms for computer algebra calculations in spacetime I. The calculation of curvature
Denis Pollney, Peter Musgrave, Kevin Santosuosso +1
We examine the relative performance of algorithms for the calculation of curvature in spacetime. The classical coordinate component method is compared to two distinct versions of t…
Towards wave extraction in numerical relativity: the quasi-Kinnersley frame
Andrea Nerozzi, Christopher Beetle, Marco Bruni +2
The Newman-Penrose formalism may be used in numerical relativity to extract coordinate-invariant information about gravitational radiation emitted in strong-field dynamical scenari…
Recoil Velocities from Equal-Mass Binary-Black-Hole Mergers
Michael Koppitz, Denis Pollney, Christian Reisswig +4
The final evolution of a binary black-hole system gives rise to a recoil velocity if an asymmetry is present in the emitted gravitational radiation. Measurements of this effect for…
Spin Diagrams for Equal-Mass Black-Hole Binaries with Aligned Spins
Luciano Rezzolla, Ernst Nils Dorband, Christian Reisswig +4
Binary black-hole systems with spins aligned with the orbital angular momentum are of special interest as they may be the preferred end-state of the inspiral of generic supermassiv…
Dynamical evolution of quasi-circular binary black hole data
Miguel Alcubierre, Bernd Bruegmann, Peter Diener +8
We study the fully nonlinear dynamical evolution of binary black hole data, whose orbital parameters are specified via the effective potential method for determining quasi-circular…
Toward standard testbeds for numerical relativity
Miguel Alcubierre, Gabrielle Allen, Carles Bona +18
In recent years, many different numerical evolution schemes for Einstein's equations have been proposed to address stability and accuracy problems that have plagued the numerical r…
The Asymptotic Falloff of Local Waveform Measurements in Numerical Relativity
Denis Pollney, Christian Reisswig, Nils Dorband +2
We examine current numerical relativity computations of gravitational waves, which typically determine the asymptotic waves at infinity by extrapolation from finite (small) radii.…
Invariants of the Riemann tensor for Class B Warped Product Spacetimes
Kevin Santosuosso, Denis Pollney, Nicos Pelavas +2
We use the computer algebra system \textit{GRTensorII} to examine invariants polynomial in the Riemann tensor for class warped product spacetimes - those which can be decompose…