The interior of a binary black hole merger
arXiv:1903.05626 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.171102
Abstract
We find strong numerical evidence for a new phenomenon in a binary black hole spacetime, namely the merger of marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs). By simulating the head-on collision of two non-spinning unequal mass black holes, we observe that the MOTS associated with the final black hole merges with the two initially disjoint surfaces corresponding to the two initial black holes. This yields a connected sequence of MOTSs interpolating between the initial and final state all the way through the non-linear binary black hole merger process. In addition, we show the existence of a MOTS with self-intersections formed immediately after the merger. This scenario now allows us to track physical quantities (such as mass, angular momentum, higher multipoles, and fluxes) across the merger, which can be potentially compared with the gravitational wave signal in the wave-zone, and with observations by gravitational wave detectors. This also suggests a possibility of proving the Penrose inequality mathematically for generic astrophysical binary back hole configurations.
arXiv comment6 Pages, 7 Figures
References in corpus (32)
- Isolated and dynamical horizons and their applications
- The Einstein Toolkit: A Community Computational Infrastructure for Relativistic Astrophysics
- Dynamical Horizons and their Properties
- A single-domain spectral method for black hole puncture data
- Introduction to Isolated Horizons in Numerical Relativity
- Dynamical Horizons: Energy, Angular Momentum, Fluxes and Balance Laws
- Generic Isolated Horizons and their Applications
- Black hole boundaries
- A 3+1 perspective on null hypersurfaces and isolated horizons
- The Collision of Two Black Holes
- Turduckening black holes: an analytical and computational study
- Finding Apparent Horizons in Numerical Relativity
- Introduction to dynamical horizons in numerical relativity
- A New Area Law in General Relativity
- Present status of the Penrose inequality
- Energy and entropy conservation for dynamical black holes
- An explicit harmonic code for black-hole evolution using excision
- Proof of a New Area Law in General Relativity
- The time evolution of marginally trapped surfaces
- The Penrose inequality and apparent horizons
- Dynamics of marginally trapped surfaces in a binary black hole merger: Growth and approach to equilibrium
- An introduction to local Black Hole horizons in the 3+1 approach to General Relativity
- Dynamical Black Holes: Approach to the Final State
- The existence and stability of marginally trapped surfaces
- Self-intersecting marginally outer trapped surfaces
- Quasi-local black hole horizons
- Fundamental properties and applications of quasi-local black hole horizons
- The Merger of Small and Large Black Holes
- The Penrose inequality on perturbations of the Schwarzschild exterior
- On the Penrose inequality along null hypersurfaces
- Understanding dynamical black hole apparent horizons
- Null Geometry and the Penrose Conjecture
Cited by in corpus (26)
- Quasinormal modes and their overtones at the common horizon in a binary black hole merger
- Thermal Ringdown of a Kerr Black Hole: Overtone Excitation, Fermi-Dirac Statistics and Greybody Factor
- News from horizons in binary black hole mergers
- Greybody Factors Imprinted on Black Hole Ringdowns. II. Merging Binary Black Holes
- Self-intersecting marginally outer trapped surfaces
- What Happens to Apparent Horizons in a Binary Black Hole Merger?
- Ultimate fate of apparent horizons during a binary black hole merger II: Horizons weaving back and forth in time
- MOTS in Schwarzschild: multiple self-intersections and extreme mass ratio mergers
- Model systematics in time domain tests of binary black hole evolution
- Horizons in a binary black hole merger I: Geometry and area increase
- Tidal deformation of dynamical horizons in binary black hole mergers
- Quasi-Local Black Hole Horizons: Recent Advances
- Fundamental Tone and Overtones of Quasinormal Modes in Ringdown Gravitational Waves: A Detailed Study in Black Hole Perturbation
- Symmetry and instability of marginally outer trapped surfaces
- Exotic marginally outer trapped surfaces in rotating spacetimes of any dimension
- Inside the Final Black Hole: Puncture and Trapped Surface Dynamics
- Unveiling the electrodynamic nature of spacetime collisions
- Geometric horizons in binary black hole mergers
- Marginally Outer Trapped Tori in Black Hole Spacetimes
- Properties of Quasi-local mass in binary black hole mergers
- Ultimate fate of apparent horizons during a binary black hole merger I: Locating and understanding axisymmetric marginally outer trapped surfaces
- Towards the merger of Hawking radiating black holes
- Dynamical Horizon Segments and Spacetime Isometries
- Geometric Horizons: A Frame Approach
- Curvature Invariants and the Geometric Horizon Conjecture in a Binary Black Hole Merger
- The Interior MOTSs of Spherically Symmetric Black Holes