The Head-On Collision of Two Equal Mass Black Holes: Numerical Methods

TL;DR

This paper presents numerical methods for simulating the head-on collision of two equal mass, nonrotating black holes using Misner initial data, addressing previous computational challenges.

Contribution

It introduces new coordinate choices, gauges, and algorithms that improve the numerical evolution of black hole collisions with Misner data.

Findings

Successful numerical evolution of black hole collisions

Overcoming previous computational difficulties

Development of improved numerical algorithms

Abstract

The head-on collision of two nonrotating axisymmetric equal mass black holes is treated numerically. We take as initial data the single parameter family of time-symmetric solutions discovered by Misner which consists of two Einstein-Rosen bridges that can be placed arbitrarily distant from one another. A number of problems associated with previous attempts to evolve these data sets have been overcome. In this article, we discuss our choices for coordinate systems, gauges, and the numerical algorithms that we have developed to evolve this system.