Extending Gravitational Wave Extraction Using Weyl Characteristic Fields

Abstract

We present a detailed methodology for extracting the full set of Newman-Penrose Weyl scalars from numerically generated spacetimes without requiring a tetrad that is completely orthonormal or perfectly aligned to the principal null directions. We also describe how to implement an extrapolation technique for computing the Weyl scalars' contribution at asymptotic null infinity in postprocessing. These methods have been used to produce ${\Psi }_4$ and $h$ waveforms for the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) waveform catalog and now have been expanded to produce the entire set of Weyl scalars. These new waveform quantities are critical for the future of gravitational wave astronomy in order to understand the finite-amplitude gauge differences that can occur in numerical waveforms. We also present a new analysis of the accuracy of waveforms produced by the Spectral Einstein Code. While ultimately we expect Cauchy characteristic extraction to yield more accurate waveforms, the extraction techniques described here are far easier to implement and have already proven to be a viable way to produce production-level waveforms that can meet the demands of current gravitational-wave detectors.

18 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, published in Physical Review D

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• Numerical-relativity validation of effective-one-body waveforms in the intermediate-mass-ratio regime
• Fully relativistic three-dimensional Cauchy-characteristic matching for physical degrees of freedom
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• Late-time tails in nonlinear evolutions of merging black holes
• Gauge structure of the Einstein field equations in Bondi-like coordinates
• Merging black holes with Cauchy-characteristic matching: Computation of late-time tails
• Numerical convergence of model Cauchy-characteristic extraction and matching
• Efficient simulations of high-spin black holes with a new gauge
• Higher Memory Effects in Numerical Simulations of Binary Black Hole Mergers
• Extreme Gravitational Interactions in the Problem of Three Black Holes in General Relativity
• Einstein-Klein-Gordon system via Cauchy-characteristic evolution: Computation of memory and ringdown tail
• Where is the ringdown? Reconstructing quasinormal modes from dispersive waves
• Testing gravitational waveform models using angular momentum
• Local and Approximate classification of spacetimes in the transverse frames
• Fixing the center-of-mass frame of numerical relativity waveforms using the post-Newtonian center-of-mass charge