Orbital Evolution of Extreme-Mass-Ratio Black-Hole Binaries with Numerical Relativity

TL;DR

This paper presents the first fully nonlinear numerical simulations of black-hole binaries with a 100:1 mass ratio, demonstrating the effectiveness of a new computational approach and comparing results with perturbative estimates for gravitational wave predictions.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel numerical technique for simulating extreme-mass-ratio black-hole binaries, achieving convergent results and validating them against perturbative methods.

Findings

Close agreement between numerical and perturbative estimates.

Successful simulation of two orbits before plunge in extreme mass ratio.

Insights relevant for gravitational wave detectors like LIGO and LISA.

Abstract

We perform the first fully nonlinear numerical simulations of black-hole binaries with mass ratios 100:1. Our technique for evolving such extreme mass ratios is based on the moving puncture approach with a new gauge condition and an optimal choice of the mesh refinement (plus large computational resources). We achieve a convergent set of results for simulations starting with a small nonspinning black hole just outside the ISCO that then performs over two orbits before plunging into the 100 times more massive black hole. We compute the gravitational energy and momenta radiated as well as the final remnant parameters and compare these quantities with the corresponding perturbative estimates. The results show a close agreement. We briefly discuss the relevance of this simulations for Advanced LIGO, third-generation ground based detectors, and LISA observations, and self-force computations.