Characteristic extraction in numerical relativity: binary black hole merger waveforms at null infinity

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/27/7/075014zbMATH Open1187.83026arXiv0912.1285OpenAlexW2051442546MaRDI QIDQ3558428FDOQ3558428

Authors: Christian Reisswig, D. Pollney, Béla Szilágyi, Nigel T. Bishop 

Publication date: 5 May 2010

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The accurate modeling of gravitational radiation is a key issue for gravitational wave astronomy. As simulation codes reach higher accuracy, systematic errors inherent in current numerical relativity wave-extraction methods become evident, and may lead to a wrong astrophysical interpretation of the data. In this paper, we give a detailed description of the Cauchy-characteristic extraction technique applied to binary black hole inspiral and merger evolutions to obtain gravitational waveforms that are defined unambiguously, that is, at future null infinity. By this method we remove finite-radius approximations and the need to extrapolate data from the near zone. Further, we demonstrate that the method is free of gauge effects and thus is affected only by numerical error. Various consistency checks reveal that energy and angular momentum are conserved to high precision and agree very well with extrapolated data. In addition, we revisit the computation of the gravitational recoil and find that finite radius extrapolation very well approximates the result at $scri$. However, the (non-convergent) systematic differences to extrapolated data are of the same order of magnitude as the (convergent) discretisation error of the Cauchy evolution hence highlighting the need for correct wave-extraction.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/0912.1285

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zbMATH Keywords

exact solutionsblack holesgravitational wavesEinstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems)

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Exact solutions to problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C15) Approximation procedures, weak fields in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C25) Black holes (83C57) Gravitational waves (83C35) Computational methods for problems pertaining to relativity and gravitational theory (83-08)

Cited In (19)

• Characteristic evolution and matching
• A note on gravitational wave extraction from binary simulations
• An introduction to well-posedness and free-evolution
• Spherical symmetry as a test case for unconstrained hyperboloidal evolution II: gauge conditions
• Gravitational radiation by point particle eccentric binary systems in the linearised characteristic formulation of general relativity
• Towards improved accuracy of gravitational waves extraction
• Gravitational wave extraction based on Cauchy–characteristic extraction and characteristic evolution
• The gravitational wave strain in the characteristic formalism of numerical relativity
• Extraction of gravitational waves in numerical relativity
• Binary black hole waveform extraction at null infinity
• Continuum and discrete initial-boundary value problems and Einstein's field equations
• Inspiral-merger-ringdown (2,0) mode waveforms for aligned-spin black-hole binaries
• A review of gravitational memory and BMS frame fixing in numerical relativity
• Gauge invariant spectral Cauchy characteristic extraction
• Comparisons of binary black hole merger waveforms
• General relativistic null-cone evolutions with a high-order scheme
• How far away is far enough for extracting numerical waveforms, and how much do they depend on the extraction method?
• Gauge-Invariant Gravitational Wave Extraction from Coalescing Binary Neutron Stars
• Extraction of gravitational-wave energy in higher dimensional numerical relativity using the Weyl tensor

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