Inspiralling black holes: the close limit

TL;DR

This paper estimates the gravitational radiation emitted during the final merger of equal mass black holes, finding about 1% of the mass energy is radiated as gravitational waves during ringdown.

Contribution

It provides an approximation of gravitational wave emission during black hole coalescence using simplified models, focusing on the ringdown phase.

Findings

Approximately 1% of the mass energy is emitted as gravitational waves.

Negligible angular momentum is radiated during the process.

The study uses approximations to estimate gravitational radiation in black hole mergers.

Abstract

Using several approximations, we calculate an estimate of the gravitational radiation emitted when two equal mass black holes coalesce at the end of their binary inspiral. We find that about 1% of the mass energy of the pair will emerge as gravitational waves during the final ringdown and a negligible fraction of the angular momentum will be radiated.