2010/01/31 by Scott E. Field, Jan S. Hesthaven, Stephen R. Lau · 23 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Applied mathematics #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Binary number #Boundary value problem #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Domain (mathematical analysis) #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Perturbation (astronomy) #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Spurious relationship #Wave equation #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.81.124030
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 81(12) (American Physical Society) · Uses revtex4, 16 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables. Document reformatted and modified based on referee's report. Commentary added which addresses the possible presence of persistent junk solutions in other approaches for solving master wave equations
arxiv created 2010/05/28 · openalex publication_date 2010/06/11 · arxiv updated 2014/11/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In the context of metric perturbation theory for nonspinning black holes, extreme mass ratio binary systems are described by distributionally forced master wave equations. Numerical solution of a master wave equation as an initial boundary value problem requires initial data. However, because the correct initial data for generic-orbit systems is unknown, specification of trivial initial data is a common choice, despite being inconsistent and resulting in a solution which is initially discontinuous in time. As is well known, this choice leads to a burst of junk radiation which eventually propagates off the computational domain. We observe another potential consequence of trivial initial data: development of a persistent spurious solution, here referred to as the Jost junk solution, which contaminates the physical solution for long times. This work studies the influence of both types of junk on metric perturbations, waveforms, and self-force measurements, and it demonstrates that smooth modified source terms mollify the Jost solution and reduce junk radiation. Our concluding section discusses the applicability of these observations to other numerical schemes and techniques used to solve distributionally forced master wave equations.