2010/04/06 by Sean T. McWilliams, Bernard Kelly, Bernard J. Kelly +1
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary number #Black hole (networking) #Computational physics #Computer science #Gravitational wave #Mass ratio #Mathematics #Model Reduction and Neural Networks #Multipole expansion #Numerical relativity #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Waveform #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.82.024014
published as Phys.Rev.D82:024014,2010 · 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. D
arxiv created 2010/04/06 · openalex publication_date 2010/07/15 · arxiv updated 2015/03/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Advances in the field of numerical relativity now make it possible to calculate the final, most powerful merger phase of binary black-hole coalescence for generic binaries. The state of the art has advanced well beyond the equal-mass case into the unequal-mass and spinning regions of parameter space. We present a study of the nonspinning portion of parameter space, primarily using an analytic waveform model tuned to available numerical data, with an emphasis on observational implications. We investigate the impact of varied mass-ratio on merger signal-to-noise ratios for several detectors, and compare our results with expectations from the test-mass limit. We note a striking similarity of the waveform phasing of the merger waveform across the available mass ratios. Motivated by this, we calculate the match between our 1:1 (equal-mass) and 4:1 mass-ratio waveforms during the merger as a function of location on the source sky, using a new formalism for the match that accounts for higher harmonics. This is an indicator of the amount of degeneracy in mass-ratio for mergers of moderate-mass-ratio systems.