Binary Black Hole Mergers in 3d Numerical Relativity

TL;DR

This paper extends 3D numerical relativity methods to simulate binary black hole mergers with linear momentum and spin, enabling the evolution through the merger phase for the first time.

Contribution

It introduces a conformal rescaling approach for non-symmetric black hole data in 3D numerical relativity, allowing simulation of the merger phase.

Findings

First successful evolution through black hole merger phase

Extension of ADM formulation to spinning and moving black holes

Implementation of puncture-based conformal rescaling in 3D

Abstract

The standard approach to the numerical evolution of black hole data using the ADM formulation with maximal slicing and vanishing shift is extended to non-symmetric black hole data containing black holes with linear momentum and spin by using a time-independent conformal rescaling based on the puncture representation of the black holes. We give an example for a concrete three dimensional numerical implementation. The main result of the simulations is that this approach allows for the first time to evolve through a brief period of the merger phase of the black hole inspiral.