2006/02/09 by John G. Baker, Joan Centrella, Dae-Il Choi +2 · 9 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.73.104002
published as Phys.Rev.D73:104002,2006 · 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PRD, update citations, minor changes
arxiv created 2006/02/09 · openalex publication_date 2006/05/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study dynamics and radiation generation in the last few orbits and merger of a binary black hole system, applying recently developed techniques for simulations of moving black holes. Our analysis of the gravitational radiation waveforms and dynamical black hole trajectories produces a consistent picture for a set of simulations with black holes beginning on circular-orbit trajectories at a variety of initial separations. We find profound agreement at the level of 1% among the simulations for the last orbit, merger and ringdown. We are confident that this part of our waveform result accurately represents the predictions from Einstein's General Relativity for the final burst of gravitational radiation resulting from the merger of an astrophysical system of equal-mass nonspinning black holes. The simulations result in a final black hole with spin parameter a/m=0.69. We also find good agreement at a level of roughly 10% for the radiation generated in the preceding few orbits.