paper

On the mass radiated by coalescing black-hole binaries

arXiv:1206.3803 · doi:10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/63

Abstract

We derive an analytic phenomenological expression that predicts the final mass of the black-hole remnant resulting from the merger of a generic binary system of black holes on quasi-circular orbits. Besides recovering the correct test-particle limit for extreme mass-ratio binaries, our formula reproduces well the results of all the numerical-relativity simulations published so far, both when applied at separations of a few gravitational radii, and when applied at separations of tens of thousands of gravitational radii. These validations make our formula a useful tool in a variety of contexts ranging from gravitational-wave physics to cosmology. As representative examples, we first illustrate how it can be used to decrease the phase error of the effective-one-body waveforms during the ringdown phase. Second, we show that, when combined with the recently computed self-force correction to the binding energy of nonspinning black-hole binaries, it provides an estimate of the energy emitted during the merger and ringdown. Finally, we use it to calculate the energy radiated in gravitational waves by massive black-hole binaries as a function of redshift, using different models for the seeds of the black-hole population.

9 pages (emulateapj), 4 figures. Matches version in ApJ but includes slight changes to fig 4 described in Barausse, et al ApJ 786, 76 (2014) (doi:10.1088/0004-637X/786/1/76), see also http://www2.iap.fr/users/barausse/erratum_mass_formula.pdf

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