Binary black holes: Spin dynamics and gravitational recoil

Herrmann, Frank; Hinder, Ian; Shoemaker, D. M.; Laguna, Pablo; Matzner, Richard A.

doi:10.1103/physrevd.76.084032

Cited by 176 publications

(260 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…binaries with unequal component masses and spins, and spins not aligned with each other or the orbital angular momentum) was described in Ref. [33], and, based on the results of that study, a semi-empirical formula to estimate the recoil velocities of the remnant black holes was proposed, finding recent confirmation in [35,45,46]. The spin contributions to the recoil velocity are generally larger than those due to the unequal masses, and, in particular, the spin component in the orbital plane has the largest effect [33], leading to a maximum recoil velocity of about 3500 − 4000 km s −1 [35].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Extra-large remnant recoil velocities and spins from near-extremal-Bowen-York-spin black-hole binaries

2008

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We evolve equal-mass, equal-spin black-hole binaries with specific spins of a/mH ∼ 0.925, the highest spins simulated thus far and nearly the largest possible for Bowen-York black holes, in a set of configurations with the spins counter-aligned and pointing in the orbital plane, which maximizes the recoil velocities of the merger remnant, as well as a configuration where the two spins point in the same direction as the orbital angular momentum, which maximizes the orbital hang-up effect and remnant spin. The coordinate radii of the individual apparent horizons in these cases are very small and the simulations require very high central resolutions (h ∼ M/320). We find that these highly spinning holes reach a maximum recoil velocity of ∼ 3300 km s −1 (the largest simulated so far) and, for the hangup configuration, a remnant spin of a/mH ∼ 0.922. These results are consistent with our previous predictions for the maximum recoil velocity of ∼ 4000 km s −1 and remnant spin; the latter reinforcing the prediction that cosmic censorship is not violated by merging highlyspinning black-hole binaries. We also numerically solve the initial data for, and evolve, a single maximal-Bowen-York-spin black hole, and confirm that the 3-metric has an O(r −2 ) singularity at the puncture, rather than the usual O(r −4 ) singularity seen for non-maximal spins.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Extra-large remnant recoil velocities and spins from near-extremal-Bowen-York-spin black-hole binaries

2008

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“…According to numerical relativity results, when two spinning black holes collide, gravitational radiation could be emitted asymmetrically. This would lead to a recoil velocity in the resulting black hole that might be as high as 4000 km s −1 (Gonzalez et al 2007;Campanelli et al 2007b,a;Healy et al 2009;Herrmann et al 2007), depending on the mass ratio of the initial black holes and the directions of their spins, but this velocity might be significantly suppressed by the relativistic alignment of the spins (Kesden et al 2010). It is not easy, of course to include numerical relativity in an N-body code, but semi-analytical formulae, coming from fitting between numerical relativity results and post-Newtonian theory (Lousto & Zlochower 2008;Baker et al 2008;Lousto et al 2010) to determine the direction and magnitude of the recoil velocity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MYRIAD: a newN-body code for simulations of star clusters

Konstantinidis

Kokkotas

2010

A&A

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Aims. We present a new C++ code for collisional N-body simulations of star clusters. Methods. The code uses the Hermite fourth-order scheme with block time steps, to advance the particles in time, while the forces and neighboring particles are computed using the GRAPE-6 board. Special treatment is used for close encounters, and binary or multiple subsystems that form either dynamically or exist in the initial configuration. The structure of the code is modular and allows the appropriate treatment of more physical phenomena, such as stellar and binary evolution, stellar collisions, and evolution of close black-hole binaries. Moreover, it can be easily modified so that the part of the code that uses GRAPE-6, could be replaced by another module that uses other accelerating-hardware such as the graphics processing units (GPUs).Results. Appropriate choice of the free parameters give a good accuracy and speed for simulations of star clusters up to and beyond core collapse. Simulations of Plummer models consisting of equal-mass stars reached core collapse at t 17 half-mass relaxation times, which compares very well with existing results, while the cumulative relative error in the energy remained below 10 −3 . Comparisons with published results of other codes for the time of core collapse for different initial conditions, show excellent agreement. Simulations of King models with an initial mass-function, similar to those found in the literature, reached core collapse at t 0.17 ± 0.05 half-mass relaxation times, which is slightly earlier than expected from previous work. Finally, the code accuracy becomes comparable to and even better than the accuracy of existing codes, when a number of close binary systems is dynamically created in a simulation. This is because of the high accuracy of the method that is used for close binary and multiple subsystems. Conclusions. The code can be used for evolving star clusters containing equal-mass stars or star clusters with an initial mass function (IMF) containing an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) at the center and/or a fraction of primordial binaries, which are systems of particular astrophysical interest.

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“…For physically motivated excision conditions, one imposes apparent horizon or isolated horizon boundary condition to the conformal factor at the excised sphere so as these spheres become automatically horizons [30,31]. Alternatively one can use the puncture method to produce accurate initial data as the ones used in binary black holes evolutions [4,5,6,7,8], and black hole/neutron star binary simulations [32]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Initial data set for binary black holes with a variety of black hole parameters, such as binary mass ratio, and black hole spins, or the binary black hole-neutron star data will become more useful considering the remarkable progress made recently for the inspiraling binary black holes simulations up to a few orbits near the innermost stable circular orbits [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Several groups have been achieved to construct binary black hole initial data successfully [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], (for earlier works, see [19]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical method for binary black hole/neutron star initial data: Code test

Tsokaros

Uryū

2007

Phys. Rev. D

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A new numerical method to construct binary black hole/neutron star initial data is presented. The method uses three spherical coordinate patches; Two of these are centered at the binary compact objects and cover a neighborhood of each object; the third patch extends to the asymptotic region. As in the Komatsu-Eriguchi-Hachisu method, nonlinear elliptic field equations are decomposed into a flat space Laplacian and a remaining nonlinear expression that serves in each iteration as an effective source. The equations are solved iteratively, integrating a Green's function against the effective source at each iteration. Detailed convergence tests for the essential part of the code are performed for a few types of selected Green's functions to treat different boundary conditions. Numerical computation of the gravitational potential of a fluid source, and a toy model for a binary black hole field are carefully calibrated with the analytic solutions to examine accuracy and convergence of the new code. As an example of the application of the code, an initial data set for binary black holes in the Isenberg-Wilson-Mathews formulation is presented, in which the apparent horizons are located using a method described in Appendix A.

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Binary black holes: Spin dynamics and gravitational recoil

Cited by 176 publications

References 38 publications

Extra-large remnant recoil velocities and spins from near-extremal-Bowen-York-spin black-hole binaries

Extra-large remnant recoil velocities and spins from near-extremal-Bowen-York-spin black-hole binaries

MYRIAD: a newN-body code for simulations of star clusters

Numerical method for binary black hole/neutron star initial data: Code test

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