Study of the Intermediate Mass Ratio Black Hole Binary Merger up to 1000:1 with Numerical Relativity

Abstract

We explicitly demonstrate that current numerical relativity techniques are able to accurately evolve black hole binaries with mass ratios of the order of 1000:1. This proof of principle is relevant for future third generation (3G) gravitational wave detectors and space mission LISA, as by purely numerical methods we would be able to accurately compute gravitational waves from the last stages of black hole mergers, as directly predicted by general relativity. We perform a sequence of simulations in the intermediate to small mass ratio regime, $m_1^p/m_2^p=1/7,1/16,1/32,1/64,1/128,1/256,1/512,1/1024$, with the small hole starting from rest at a proper distance $D\approx 13M$. We compare these headon full numerical evolutions with the corresponding semianalytic point particle perturbative results finding an impressive agreement for the total gravitational radiated energy and linear momentum as well as for the waveform spectra. We display numerical convergence of the results and identify the minimal numerical resolutions required to accurately solve for these very low amplitude gravitational waves. This work represents a first step towards the considerable challenge of applying numerical-relativity waveforms to interpreting gravitational-wave observations by LISA and next-generation ground-based gravitational-wave detectors.

7 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (16)

• Remnant mass, spin, and recoil from spin aligned black-hole binaries
• Effective-one-body waveforms calibrated to numerical relativity simulations: coalescence of non-precessing, spinning, equal-mass black holes
• Orbital Evolution of Extreme-Mass-Ratio Black-Hole Binaries with Numerical Relativity
• Remnant of binary black-hole mergers: New simulations and peak luminosity studies
• Foundations of multiple black hole evolutions
• Modeling the source of GW150914 with targeted numerical-relativity simulations
• The second RIT binary black hole simulations catalog and its application to gravitational waves parameter estimation
• The Third RIT binary black hole simulations catalog
• Targeted large mass ratio numerical relativity surrogate waveform model for GW190814
• Exploring the small mass ratio binary black hole merger via Zeno's dichotomy approach
• Accuracy Issues for Numerical Waveforms
• The nonspinning binary black hole merger scenario revisited
• Adapted gauge to small mass ratio binary black hole evolutions
• Application of the third RIT binary black hole simulations catalog to parameter estimation of gravitational waves signals from the LIGO-Virgo O1/O2 observational runs
• Black-hole head-on collisions in higher dimensions
• Adapted gauge to a quasilocal measure of the black holes recoil