A catalog of 174 binary black-hole simulations for gravitational-wave astronomy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive catalog of 174 numerical binary black-hole simulations, covering diverse parameters, to aid gravitational-wave astronomy and improve waveform modeling.

Contribution

It provides the largest publicly available set of binary black-hole simulations with detailed parameters, including precession and eccentricity, enhancing gravitational-wave data analysis.

Findings

Good agreement with post-Newtonian precession predictions

Catalog includes simulations with high spins and mass ratios

Highlights challenges in waveform modeling and parameter space coverage

Abstract

This paper presents a publicly available catalog of 174 numerical binary black-hole simulations following up to 35 orbits. The catalog includes 91 precessing binaries, mass ratios up to 8:1, orbital eccentricities from a few percent to $10^{-5}$, black-hole spins up to 98% of the theoretical maximum, and radiated energies up to 11.1% of the initial mass. We establish remarkably good agreement with post-Newtonian precession of orbital and spin directions for two new precessing simulations, and we discuss other applications of this catalog. Formidable challenges remain: e.g., precession complicates the connection of numerical and approximate analytical waveforms, and vast regions of the parameter space remain unexplored.