Comparing initial-data sets for binary black holes

Abstract

We compare the results of constructing binary black hole initial data with three different decompositions of the constraint equations of general relativity. For each decomposition we compute the initial data using a superposition of two Kerr-Schild black holes to fix the freely specifiable data. We find that these initial-data sets differ significantly, with the ADM energy varying by as much as 5% of the total mass. We find that all initial-data sets currently used for evolutions might contain unphysical gravitational radiation of the order of several percent of the total mass. This is comparable to the amount of gravitational-wave energy observed during the evolved collision. More astrophysically realistic initial data will require more careful choices of the freely specifiable data and boundary conditions for both the metric and extrinsic curvature. However, we find that the choice of extrinsic curvature affects the resulting data sets more strongly than the choice of conformal metric.

18 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (9)

• Extending the lifetime of 3D black hole computations with a new hyperbolic system of evolution equations
• Binary black holes in circular orbits. II. Numerical methods and first results
• Modeling gravitational radiation from coalescing binary black holes
• Binary black holes in circular orbits. I. A global spacetime approach
• Corotating and irrotational binary black holes in quasi-circular orbits
• Circular orbits of corotating binary black holes: comparison between analytical and numerical results
• Plunge waveforms from inspiralling binary black holes
• The 3D Grazing Collision of Two Black Holes
• Highly accurate calculation of rotating neutron stars

Cited by in corpus (56)

• Isolated and dynamical horizons and their applications
• A single-domain spectral method for black hole puncture data
• Black Hole Spin Evolution
• Introduction to Isolated Horizons in Numerical Relativity
• High-accuracy waveforms for binary black hole inspiral, merger, and ringdown
• A multidomain spectral method for solving elliptic equations
• Extrinsic Curvature and the Einstein Constraints
• Numerical Relativity and Compact Binaries
• Spectral Methods for Numerical Relativity
• Solving Einstein's Equations With Dual Coordinate Frames
• Binary-black-hole initial data with nearly-extremal spins
• Excision boundary conditions for black hole initial data
• Black hole-neutron star mergers: effects of the orientation of the black hole spin
• Reducing orbital eccentricity of precessing black-hole binaries
• Initial data for black hole-neutron star binaries: a flexible, high-accuracy spectral method
• Improved numerical stability of stationary black hole evolution calculations
• High accuracy simulations of black hole binaries:spins anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum
• Golden Binary Gravitational-Wave Sources: Robust Probes of Strong-Field Gravity
• Conformally curved binary black hole initial data including tidal deformations and outgoing radiation
• Binary black hole initial data from matched asymptotic expansions
• Conformal Thin-Sandwich Solver for Generic Initial Data
• A double-domain spectral method for black hole excision data
• Improvements to the construction of binary black hole initial data
• Improved initial data for black hole binaries by asymptotic matching of post-Newtonian and perturbed black hole solutions
• Beyond the Bowen-York extrinsic curvature for spinning black holes
• A new code for equilibriums and quasiequilibrium initial data of compact objects
• Physics and Initial Data for Multiple Black Hole Spacetimes
• Circumbinary Disk Accretion into Spinning Black Hole Binaries
• Black Hole-Neutron Star Binaries in General Relativity: Quasiequilibrium Formulation
• Black hole initial data on hyperboloidal slices
• Puncture Initial Data for Black-Hole Binaries with High Spins and High Boosts
• Gauge conditions for binary black hole puncture data based on an approximate helical Killing vector
• Quasi-equilibrium Binary Black Hole Initial Data for Dynamical Evolutions
• Numerical method for binary black hole/neutron star initial data: Code test
• Horizon dynamics of distorted rotating black holes
• Can a combination of the conformal thin-sandwich and puncture methods yield binary black hole solutions in quasi-equilibrium?
• The Final Merger of Black-Hole Binaries
• Post-Newtonian Freely Specifiable Initial Data for Binary Black Holes in Numerical Relativity
• Towards a wave--extraction method for numerical relativity: III. Analytical examples for the Beetle--Burko radiation scalar
• Initial data for Einstein's equations with superposed gravitational waves
• Thermodynamics of magnetized binary compact objects
• Eccentricity content of binary black hole initial data
• New code for equilibriums and quasiequilibrium initial data of compact objects. II. Convergence tests and comparisons of binary black hole initial data
• Quasi-circular orbits of conformal thin-sandwich puncture binary black holes
• A skeleton approximate solution of the Einstein field equations for multiple black-hole systems
• Radiation content of Conformally flat initial data
• Binary black hole evolutions of approximate puncture initial data
• Conformal thin-sandwich puncture initial data for boosted black holes
• Initial data for high-compactness black hole-neutron star binaries
• Comparing Criteria for Circular Orbits in General Relativity
• Conformally covariant parameterizations for relativistic initial data
• Black hole initial data from a non-conformal decomposition
• Towards a wave-extraction method for numerical relativity. V. Extracting the Weyl scalars in the quasi-Kinnersley tetrad from spatial data
• Black hole initial data by numerical integration of the parabolic-hyperbolic form of the constraints
• The initial value problem in numerical relativity
• Momentum constraint relaxation