Tidal deformation of dynamical horizons in binary black hole mergers

TL;DR

This paper investigates the tidal deformation of black holes during binary mergers by analyzing source multipole moments, revealing universal behavior in certain cases and contrasting with neutron star Love numbers.

Contribution

It introduces a method to track source multipole moments in black hole mergers and demonstrates their universal behavior, providing new insights into black hole properties during inspiral.

Findings

Source multipole moments exhibit universal behavior for modest mass ratios.

Black hole Love numbers do not vanish in certain late-stage inspiral scenarios.

The study offers a new perspective on black hole deformation beyond traditional Love numbers.

Abstract

An important physical phenomenon that manifests itself during the inspiral of two orbiting compact objects is the tidal deformation of each under the gravitational influence of its companion. In the case of binary neutron star mergers, this tidal deformation and the associated Love numbers have been used to probe properties of dense matter and the nuclear equation of state. Non-spinning black holes on the other hand have a vanishing (field) tidal Love number in General Relativity. This pertains to the deformation of the asymptotic gravitational field. In certain cases, especially in the late stages of the inspiral phase when the black holes get close to each other, the source multipole moments might be more relevant in probing their properties and the No-Hair conjecture; contrastingly, these Love numbers do not vanish. In this paper, we track the source multipole moments in simulations of several binary black hole mergers and calculate these Love numbers. We present evidence that, at least for modest mass ratios, the behavior of the source multipole moments is universal.