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Colliding black holes: how far can the close approximation go?

Reinaldo Gleiser·Oscar Nicasio·Richard Price·Jorge Pullin
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Abstract

We study the head-on collision of two equal-mass momentarily stationary black holes, using black hole perturbation theory up to second order. Compared to first-order results, this significantly improves agreement with numerically computed waveforms and energy. Much more important, second-order results correctly indicate the range of validity of perturbation theory. This use of second-order, to provide ``error bars,'' makes perturbation theory a viable tool for providing benchmarks for numerical relativity in more generic collisions and, in some range of collision parameters, for supplying waveform templates for gravitational wave detection.

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Reinaldo Gleiser, Oscar Nicasio, Richard Price, Jorge Pullin. 1996-09-09. Colliding black holes: how far can the close approximation go?. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.77.4483

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