2020/06/30 by Carlos O. Lousto, C. O. Loustó, James Healy
Physics and Astronomy · #Amplitude #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary black hole #Binary number #Black hole (networking) #Computational physics #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Geometry #Gravitational wave #Mass ratio #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Scaling #Statistical physics #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.HE #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.125.191102
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 191102 (2020) · 6 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2020/10/07 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/05 · arxiv updated 2020/11/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We perform a sequence of binary black hole simulations with increasingly small mass ratios, reaching to a 128:1 binary that displays 13 orbits before merger. Based on a detailed convergence study of the q=m1/m2=1/15 nonspinning case, we apply additional mesh refinement levels around the smaller hole horizon [30] to reach successively the q=1/32, q=1/64, and q=1/128 cases. Roughly a linear computational resources scaling with 1/q is observed on eight-nodes simulations. We compute the remnant properties of the merger: final mass, spin, and recoil velocity, finding precise consistency between horizon and radiation measures. We also compute the gravitational waveforms: their peak frequency, amplitude, and luminosity. We compare those values with predictions of the corresponding phenomenological formulas, reproducing the particle limit within 2%, and we then use the new results to improve their fitting coefficients.