Key Elements of Robustness in Binary Black Hole Evolutions using Spectral Methods

Abstract

As a network of advanced-era gravitational wave detectors is nearing its design sensitivity, efficient and accurate waveform modeling becomes more and more relevant. Understanding of the nature of the signal being sought can have an order unity effect on the event rates seen in these instruments. The paper provides a description of key elements of the Spectral Einstein Code ({\tt SpEC}), with details of our spectral adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithm that has been optimized for binary black hole (BBH) evolutions. We expect that the gravitational waveform catalog produced by our code will have a central importance in both the detection and parameter estimation of gravitational waves in these instruments.

39 pages, 16 figures, invited review paper

References in corpus (6)

• Solving Einstein's Equations With Dual Coordinate Frames
• Stable radiation-controlling boundary conditions for the generalized harmonic Einstein equations
• Dynamical Excision Boundaries in Spectral Evolutions of Binary Black Hole Spacetimes
• An explicit harmonic code for black-hole evolution using excision
• An Improved Gauge Driver for the Generalized Harmonic Einstein System
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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Improved methods for simulating nearly extremal binary black holes
• Accretion disks around binary black holes of unequal mass: GRMHD simulations of postdecoupling and merger
• The Overlap of Numerical Relativity, Perturbation Theory and Post-Newtonian Theory in the Binary Black Hole Problem
• Nearly extremal apparent horizons in simulations of merging black holes
• Spectral approach to axisymmetric evolution of Einstein's equations