The Collision of Two Black Holes

Abstract

We study the head-on collision of two equal mass, nonrotating black holes. We consider a range of cases from holes surrounded by a common horizon to holes initially separated by about $20M$, where $M$ is the mass of each hole. We determine the waveforms and energies radiated for both the $\ell =2$ and $\ell =4$ waves resulting from the collision. In all cases studied the normal modes of the final black hole dominate the spectrum. We also estimate analytically the total gravitational radiation emitted, taking into account the tidal heating of horizons using the membrane paradigm, and other effects. For the first time we are able to compare analytic calculations, black hole perturbation theory, and strong field, nonlinear numerical calculations for this problem, and we find excellent agreement.

14 pages, 93-6

Cited by in corpus (139)

• The Confrontation between General Relativity and Experiment
• Quasinormal modes of black holes and black branes
• Quasi-Normal Modes of Stars and Black Holes
• Measuring gravitational waves from binary black hole coalescences: I. Signal to noise for inspiral, merger, and ringdown
• Gauge conditions for long-term numerical black hole evolutions without excision
• Inspiral, merger and ring-down of equal-mass black-hole binaries
• Scalar, electromagnetic and Weyl perturbations of BTZ black holes: quasi normal modes
• Quasi-Normal Modes of Schwarzschild Anti-De Sitter Black Holes: Electromagnetic and Gravitational Perturbations
• Black Hole Spin Evolution
• Zoom & Whirl: Eccentric equatorial orbits around spinning black holes and their evolution under gravitational radiation reaction
• Relativistic Numerical Method for Close Neutron Star Binaries
• Waves in Open Systems: Eigenfunction Expansions
• Toward faithful templates for non-spinning binary black holes using the effective-one-body approach
• Gravitational waves and pulsating stars: What can we learn from future observations?
• Colliding Black Holes: The Close Limit
• Black-hole binaries, gravitational waves, and numerical relativity
• Numerical Relativity and Compact Binaries
• Numerical Relativity: A review
• Gravitational Radiation in D-dimensional Spacetimes
• Gauge-invariant Non-spherical Metric Perturbations of Schwarzschild Black-Hole Spacetimes
• Cosmological expansion and local physics
• Binary black-hole evolutions of excision and puncture data
• The high-energy collision of two black holes
• Analysis of Ringdown Overtones in GW150914
• Extraction of Gravitational Waves in Numerical Relativity
• Circularization and Final Spin in Eccentric Binary Black Hole Inspirals
• Three dimensional numerical relativity: the evolution of black holes
• Colliding black holes: how far can the close approximation go?
• The Head-On Collision of Two Equal Mass Black Holes Peter Anninos
• Toward standard testbeds for numerical relativity
• Head-on collision of two black holes: comparison of different approaches
• Binary Black Hole Mergers in 3d Numerical Relativity
• Gravitational wave extraction and outer boundary conditions by perturbative matching
• Detection Rate Estimates of Gravity-waves Emitted During Parabolic Encounters of Stellar Black Holes in Globular Clusters
• Gravitational Recoil from Binary Black Hole Mergers: the Close-Limit Approximation
• Numerical binary black hole collisions in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity
• Grazing Collisions of Black Holes via the Excision of Singularities
• First order hyperbolic formalism for Numerical Relativity
• Head-on collisions of black holes: the particle limit
• Quasinormal Modes of Dirty Black Holes
• The 3D Grazing Collision of Two Black Holes
• The collision of boosted black holes
• Scattering of particles by neutron stars: Time-evolutions for axial perturbations
• Hyperbolic slicings of spacetime: singularity avoidance and gauge shocks
• Applying black hole perturbation theory to numerically generated spacetimes
• Exploring New Physics Frontiers Through Numerical Relativity
• Numerical Relativity of Compact Binaries in the 21st Century
• The Evolution of Distorted Rotating Black Holes III: Initial Data
• The numerical relativity breakthrough for binary black holes
• Horizon Boundary Condition for Black Hole Spacetimes
• Head--on Collision of Two Unequal Mass Black Holes
• Numerical relativity for D dimensional space-times: head-on collisions of black holes and gravitational wave extraction
• Dynamics of Apparent and Event Horizons
• An Axisymmetric Gravitational Collapse Code
• The Evolution of Distorted Rotating Black Holes I: Methods and Tests
• Perturbative Approach to the Quasinormal Modes of Dirty Black Holes
• NR/HEP: roadmap for the future
• A One-Parameter Family of Time-Symmetric Initial Data for the Radial Infall of a Particle into a Schwarzschild Black Hole
• Numerical evolution of Brill waves
• Evolving the Bowen-York initial data for spinning black holes
• Gravitational waves from a test particle scattered by a neutron star: Axial mode case
• What we (don't) know about black hole formation in high-energy collisions
• Quasi-Normal Mode Expansion for Linearized Waves in Gravitational Systems
• Black hole head-on collisions and gravitational waves with fixed mesh-refinement and dynamic singularity excision
• Test-beds and applications for apparent horizon finders in numerical relativity
• Gravitational radiation from collisions at the speed of light: a massless particle falling into a Schwarzschild black hole
• Relativistic Hydrodynamics in Close Binary Systems: Analysis of Neutron-Star Collapse
• Collisions of boosted black holes: perturbation theory prediction of gravitational radiation
• Black hole collisions from Brill-Lindquist initial data: predictions of perturbation theory
• Wave Propagation in Gravitational Systems: Completeness of Quasinormal Modes
• Event Horizons in Numerical Relativity I: Methods and Tests
• Binary Neutron-Star Systems: From the Newtonian Regime to the Last Stable Orbit
• The Asymmetric Merger of Black Holes
• Quasinormal modes of plane-symmetric anti-de Sitter black holes: a complete analysis of the gravitational perturbations
• Ringdown of a dynamical spacetime
• A note on electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations of the Bardeen de Sitter black hole: quasinormal modes and greybody factors
• Three-dimensional simulations of distorted black holes. I. Comparison with axisymmetric results
• Superposition of Weyl solutions: The equilibrium forces
• The interior of a binary black hole merger
• Close-limit analysis for head-on collision of two black holes in higher dimensions: Brill-Lindquist initial data
• Three Dimensional Distorted Black Holes
• A brief history of gravitational wave research
• Spherical excision for moving black holes and summation by parts for axisymmetric systems
• Calculation of gravitational wave forms from black hole collisions and disk collapse: Applying perturbation theory to numerical spacetimes
• Event Horizons in Numerical Relativity II: Analyzing the Horizon
• Full 3D Numerical Relativity Simulations of Neutron Star -- Boson Star Collisions with BAM
• Exact Solutions for the Intrinsic Geometry of Black Hole Coalescence
• Collisions with Black Holes and Deconfined Plasmas
• Quasinormal modes, greybody factors and thermodynamics of four dimensional AdS black holes in Critical Gravity
• Quasi-stationary binary inspiral II: Radiation-balanced boundary conditions
• Up to eleven: radiation from particles with arbitrary energy falling into higher-dimensional black holes
• Gravitational bremsstrahlung in ultra-planckian collisions
• Perturbations of the Vaidya metric in the frequency domain: Quasi-normal modes and tidal response
• Head-on collision of compact objects in general relativity: Comparison of post-Newtonian and perturbation approaches
• On the proximity of black hole horizons: lessons from Vaidya
• Prospects for multi-messenger extended emission from core-collapse supernovae in the Local Universe
• The Efficiency of Gravitational Bremsstrahlung Production in the Collision of Two Schwarzschild Black Holes
• Massless Dirac Perturbations in a Consistent Model of Loop Quantum Gravity Black Hole: Quasinormal Modes and Particle Emission Rates
• Higher dimensional Numerical Relativity: code comparison
• Numerical Relativity in 3+1 Dimensions
• Non-linear harmonic generation in finite amplitude black hole oscillations
• Embedding initial data for black hole collisions
• The high-energy collision of black holes in higher dimensions
• Black hole collision with a scalar particle in four, five and seven dimensional anti-de Sitter spacetimes: ringing and radiation
• Dynamical quasinormal mode excitation
• Waveform propagation in black hole spacetimes: evaluating the quality of numerical solutions
• A rigidity property of asymptotically simple spacetimes arising from conformally flat data
• Supporting High-Performance and High-Throughput Computing for Experimental Science
• Time-symmetric initial data for binary black holes in numerical relativity
• The radial infall of a highly relativistic point particle into a Kerr black hole along the symmetry axis
• Evolution of a black hole cluster in full general relativity
• Entropic force in black hole binaries and its Newtonian limits
• Estimates of the total gravitation radiation in the head-on black hole collision
• Quasi-spherical approximation for rotating black holes
• Black Holes, Mergers, and the Entropy Budget of the Universe
• Collision of Two Rotating Hayward Black Holes
• A Numerical Study of Boson Star Binaries
• Applications of the close-limit approximation: horizonless compact objects and scalar fields
• The Upper Bound of Radiation Energy in the Myers-Perry Black Hole Collision
• Radiation recoil from highly distorted black holes
• The two-phase approximation for black hole collisions: Is it robust?
• Systematic bias in LISA ringdown analysis due to waveform inaccuracy
• CLAP for modified gravity: scalar instabilities in binary black hole spacetimes
• Two Kerr black holes with axisymmetric spins: An improved Newtonian model for the head-on collision and gravitational radiation
• Hypergraph Discretization of the Cauchy Problem in General Relativity via Wolfram Model Evolution
• New Coordinate Systems for Axisymmetric Black Hole Collisions
• Gravitational radiation sources for acoustic detectors
• Gravitational radiation sources and signatures
• Head-on infall of two compact objects: Third post-Newtonian Energy Flux
• Semiclassical bremsstrahlung from a charge radially falling into a Schwarzschild black hole
• On the interactions and equilibrium between Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton black holes
• New frontiers in Numerical Relativity
• Perturbations with angular momentum of Robinson-Trautman spacetimes
• Thermodynamic Description of Inelastic Collisions in General Relativity
• New results for electromagnetic quasinormal modes of black holes
• Challenging theories of gravitation: dark matter, compact objects and gravitational waves
• Constructing balanced equations of motion for particles in general relativity: the harmonic gauge case
• Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• superB/NRPy: Scalable, Task-Based Numerical Relativity for 3G Gravitational Wave Science