Numerical simulation of orbiting black holes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first numerical simulations of orbiting black holes lasting about one orbital period, utilizing comoving coordinates and fixed mesh refinement for efficiency.

Contribution

Introduces a novel simulation method with dynamically adjusted shift conditions to model orbiting black holes over extended periods.

Findings

Black holes can orbit for about one period without merging.

Comoving coordinates effectively minimize motion during simulations.

Fixed mesh refinement improves computational efficiency.

Abstract

We present numerical simulations of binary black hole systems which for the first time last for about one orbital period for close but still separate black holes as indicated by the absence of a common apparent horizon. An important part of the method is the construction of comoving coordinates, in which both the angular and radial motion is minimized through a dynamically adjusted shift condition. We use fixed mesh refinement for computational efficiency.