2006/05/31 by Matthew S. Caudill, Matthew Caudill, Gregory B. Cook +4 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.74.064011
published as Phys.Rev. D74 (2006) 064011 · 24 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review D, revtex4; Fixed error in computing proper separation and updated figures and tables accordingly, added reference to Sec. IV.A, fixed minor error in Sec. IV.B, added new data to Tables IV and V, fixed 1 reference, fixed error in Eq. (A7b), included minor changes from PRD editing
arxiv created 2006/09/01 · openalex publication_date 2006/09/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The construction of initial data for black-hole binaries usually involves the choice of free parameters that define the spins of the black holes and essentially the eccentricity of the orbit. Such parameters must be chosen carefully to yield initial data with the desired physical properties. In this paper, we examine these choices in detail for the quasiequilibrium method coupled to apparent-horizon/quasiequilibrium boundary conditions. First, we compare two independent criteria for choosing the orbital frequency, the ``Komar-mass condition'' and the ``effective-potential method,'' and find excellent agreement. Second, we implement quasilocal measures of the spin of the individual holes, calibrate these with corotating binaries, and revisit the construction of nonspinning black-hole binaries. Higher-order effects, beyond those considered in earlier work, turn out to be important. Without those, supposedly nonspinning black holes have appreciable quasilocal spin; furthermore, the Komar-mass condition and effective-potential method agree only when these higher-order effects are taken into account. We compute a new sequence of quasicircular orbits for nonspinning black-hole binaries, and determine the innermost stable circular orbit of this sequence.