Strong-field scattering of two spinning black holes: Numerical Relativity versus post-Minkowskian gravity

TL;DR

This paper compares numerical relativity simulations of strong-field black hole scattering with post-Minkowskian and effective-one-body models, showing the latter's superior accuracy especially when including spin effects.

Contribution

It provides new high-energy, spinning black hole scattering simulations and demonstrates the effectiveness of a resummed effective-one-body approach over traditional post-Minkowskian methods.

Findings

Post-Minkowskian angles poorly match NR data.

Resummed effective-one-body models agree well with NR.

First simulations of unequal-spin black hole scattering.

Abstract

Highly accurate models of the gravitational-wave signal from coalescing compact binaries are built by completing analytical computations of the binary dynamics with non-perturbative information from numerical relativity (NR) simulations. In this paper we present four sets of NR simulations of equal-mass black hole binaries that undergo strong-field scattering: (i) we reproduce and extend the nonspinning simulations first presented in [Damour \textit{et al.}, Phys.Rev.D 89 (2014) 8, 081503], (ii) we compute two suites of nonspinning simulations at higher energies, probing stronger field interactions, (iii) we present a series of \textit{spinning} simulations including, for the first time, unequal-spin configurations. When comparing the NR scattering angles to analytical predictions based on state-of-the-art post-Minkowskian (PM) calculations, we find that PM-expanded scattering angles show poor convergence towards NR data. By contrast, a resummed computation of scattering angles via a spin-dependent, radiation-reacted, effective-one-body potential shows excellent agreement for both nonspinning and spinning configurations.