A hybrid method for understanding black-hole mergers: head-on case

Abstract

Black-hole-binary coalescence is often divided into three stages: inspiral, merger and ringdown. The post-Newtonian (PN) approximation treats the inspiral phase, black-hole perturbation (BHP) theory describes the ringdown, and the nonlinear dynamics of spacetime characterize the merger. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid method that incorporates elements of PN and BHP theories, and we apply it to the head-on collision of black holes with transverse, anti-parallel spins. We compare our approximation technique with a full numerical-relativity simulation, and we find good agreement between the gravitational waveforms and the radiated energy and momentum. Our results suggest that PN and BHP theories may suffice to explain the main features of outgoing gravitational radiation for head-on mergers. This would further imply that linear perturbations to exact black-hole solutions can capture the nonlinear aspects of head-on binary-black-hole mergers accessible to observers far from the collision.

14 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, revtex4 format, v2 references added, v3 expanded discussion of comparison with numerical relativity, and small changes to match published version

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Prototype effective-one-body model for nonprecessing spinning inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms
• Frame-Dragging Vortexes and Tidal Tendexes Attached to Colliding Black Holes: Visualizing the Curvature of Spacetime
• Quasinormal-mode filters: a new approach to analyze the gravitational-wave ringdown of binary black-hole mergers
• Using rational filters to uncover the first ringdown overtone in GW150914
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• Analytical Black-Hole Binary Merger Waveforms
• Greybody Factors Imprinted on Black Hole Ringdowns. II. Merging Binary Black Holes
• Modeling Gravitational Recoil Using Numerical Relativity
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• The Status of Black-Hole Binary Merger Simulations with Numerical Relativity
• Hybrid method for understanding black-hole mergers: Inspiralling case
• New Generic Ringdown Frequencies at the Birth of a Kerr Black Hole
• Event Horizon Deformations in Extreme Mass-Ratio Black Hole Mergers
• Fundamental Tone and Overtones of Quasinormal Modes in Ringdown Gravitational Waves: A Detailed Study in Black Hole Perturbation
• Signatures of Quantum Gravity in Gravitational Wave Memory