Matter flows around black holes and gravitational radiation

Abstract

We develop and calibrate a new method for estimating the gravitational radiation emitted by complex motions of matter sources in the vicinity of black holes. We compute numerically the linearized curvature perturbations induced by matter fields evolving in fixed black hole backgrounds, whose evolution we obtain using the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics. The current implementation of the proposal concerns non-rotating holes and axisymmetric hydrodynamical motions. As first applications we study i) dust shells falling onto the black hole isotropically from finite distance, ii) initially spherical layers of material falling onto a moving black hole, and iii) anisotropic collapse of shells. We focus on the dependence of the total gravitational wave energy emission on the flow parameters, in particular shell thickness, velocity and degree of anisotropy. The gradual excitation of the black hole quasi-normal mode frequency by sufficiently compact shells is demonstrated and discussed. A new prescription for generating physically reasonable initial data is discussed, along with a range of technical issues relevant to numerical relativity.

27 pages, 12 encapsulated figures, revtex, amsfonts, submitted to Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (8)

• Boosted three-dimensional black-hole evolutions with singularity excision
• Stable characteristic evolution of generic 3-dimensional single-black-hole spacetimes
• Relativistic Hydrodynamics around Black Holes and Horizon Adapted Coordinate Systems
• A "horizon adapted" approach to the study of relativistic accretion flows onto rotating black holes
• Evolving the Bowen-York initial data for spinning black holes
• Non-axisymmetric relativistic Bondi-Hoyle accretion onto a Schwarzschild black hole
• Dynamics of scalar fields in the background of rotating black holes II: A note on superradiance
• Adaptive computation of gravitational waves from black hole interactions

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Can environmental effects spoil precision gravitational-wave astrophysics?
• Head-on collisions and orbital mergers of Proca stars
• Relativistic hydrodynamics on spacelike and null surfaces: Formalism and computations of spherically symmetric spacetimes
• Numerical hydrodynamics in general relativity
• The incorporation of matter into characteristic numerical relativity
• Axisymmetric core collapse simulations using characteristic numerical relativity
• On the accretion-induced QNM excitation of a Schwarzschild black hole
• Accretion-driven gravitational radiation from nonrotating compact objects. Infalling quadrupolar shells
• Gravitational waves from scalar field accretion
• Signatures of the sources in the gravitational waves of a perturbed Schwarzschild black hole
• A hybrid approach to black hole perturbations from extended matter sources
• Electromagnetic partner of the gravitational signal during accretion onto black holes
• Observable Signatures of EMRI Black Hole Binaries Embedded in Thin Accretion Disks
• Gravitational Perturbations of the Kerr black hole due to arbitrary sources