Binary black hole merger waveforms in the extreme mass ratio limit

Abstract

We discuss the transition from quasi-circular inspiral to plunge of a system of two nonrotating black holes of masses $m_1$ and $m_2$ in the extreme mass ratio limit $m_1{m}_2\ll (m_1+m_2{)}^2$. In this limit, we compare the merger waveforms obtained by two different methods: a {\it numerical} (Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli) one, and an {\it analytical} (Effective One Body) one. This is viewed as a contribution to the matching between analytical and numerical methods.

3 pages, 1 figure. Revised version. To appear in the proceedings of the 11th Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, Berlin, July 23-29 2006

References in corpus (4)

• Inspiral, merger and ring-down of equal-mass black-hole binaries
• Total recoil: the maximum kick from nonspinning black-hole binary inspiral
• Consistency of post-Newtonian waveforms with numerical relativity
• Binary black hole merger in the extreme mass ratio limit