arXiv subjects

Jeffrey Winicour

Publications and source records attributed to Jeffrey Winicour.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Apparent horizon tracking in supercritical solutions of the Einstein-scalar field equations in spherical symmetry in affine-null coordinates

Choptuik's critical phenomena in general relativity is revisited in the affine-null metric formulation of Einstein's equations for a massless scalar field in spherical symmetry. Numerical solutions are obtained by evolution of initial data using pseudo-spectral methods. The underlying system consists of differential equations along the outgoing null rays which can be solved in sequential form. A new two-parameter family of initial data is presented for which these equations can be integrated analytically. Specific choices of the initial data parameters correspond to either an asymptotically flat null cone, a black hole event horizon or the singular interior of a black hole. Our main focus is on the interior features of a black hole, for which the affine-null system is especially well adapted. We present both analytic and numerical results describing the geometric properties of the apparent horizon and final singularity. Using a re-gridding technique for the affine parameter, numerical evolution of initially asymptotically flat supercritical data can be continued inside the event horizon and track the apparent horizon up to the formation of the final singularity.

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arXiv2019

Kerr Black Holes and Nonlinear Radiation Memory

The Minkowski background intrinsic to the Kerr-Schild version of the Kerr metric provides a definition of a boosted spinning black hole. There are two Kerr-Schild versions corresponding to ingoing or outgoing principal null directions. The two corresponding Minkowski backgrounds and their associated boosts differ drastically. This has an important implication for the gravitational memory effect. A prior analysis of the transition of a non-spinning Schwarzschild black hole to a boosted state showed that the memory effect in the nonlinear regime agrees with the linearised result based upon the retarded Green function only if the final velocity corresponds to a boost symmetry of the ingoing Minkowski background. A boost with respect to the outgoing Minkowski background is inconsistent with the absence of ingoing radiation from past null infinity. We show that this results extends to the transition of a Kerr black hole to a boosted state and apply it to set upper and lower bounds for the boost memory effect resulting from the collision of two spinning black holes.

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arXiv2018

Toward computing gravitational initial data without elliptic solvers

Two new methods have been proposed for solving the gravitational constraints without using elliptic solvers by formulating them as either an algebraic-hyperbolic or parabolic-hyperbolic system. Here, we compare these two methods and present a unified computational infrastructure for their implementation as numerical evolution codes. An important potential application of these methods is the prescription of initial data for the simulation of black holes. This paper is meant to support progress and activity in that direction.

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arXiv2018

Bondi-Sachs Formalism

The Bondi-Sachs formalism of General Relativity is a metric-based treatment of the Einstein equations in which the coordinates are adapted to the null geodesics of the spacetime. It provided the first convincing evidence that gravitational radiation is a nonlinear effect of general relativity and that the emission of gravitational waves from an isolated system is accompanied by a mass loss from the system. The asymptotic behaviour of the Bondi-Sachs metric revealed the existence of the symmetry group at null infinity, the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs group, which turned out to be larger than the Poincare group.

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arXiv2018

Boosted Schwarzschild Metrics from a Kerr-Schild Perspective

The Kerr-Schild version of the Schwarzschild metric contains a Minkowski background which provides a definition of a boosted black hole. There are two Kerr-Schild versions corresponding to ingoing or outgoing principle null directions. We show that the two corresponding Minkowski backgrounds and their associated boosts have an unexpected difference. We analyze this difference and discuss the implications in the nonlinear regime for the gravitational memory effect resulting from the ejection of massive particles from an isolated system. We show that the nonlinear effect agrees with the linearized result based upon the retarded Green function only if the velocity of the ejected particle corresponds to a boost symmetry of the ingoing Minkowski background. A boost with respect to the outgoing Minkowski background is inconsistent with the absence of ingoing radiation from past null infinity.

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arXiv2017

The Algebraic-Hyperbolic Approach to the Linearized Gravitational Constraints on a Minkowski Background

An algebraic-hyperbolic method for solving the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints has recently been shown to be well posed for general nonlinear perturbations of the initial data for a Schwarzschild black hole. This is a new approach to solving the constraints of Einstein's equations which does not involve elliptic equations and has potential importance for the construction of binary black hole data. In order to shed light on the underpinnings of this approach, we consider its application to obtain solutions of the constraints for linearized perturbations of Minkowski space. In that case, we find the surprising result that there are no suitable Cauchy hypersurfaces in Minkowski space for which the linearized algebraic-hyperbolic constraint problem is well posed.

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arXiv2017

Radiation Memory, Boosted Schwarzschild Spacetimes and Supertranslations

We investigate gravitational radiation memory and its corresponding effect on the asymptotic symmetries of a body whose exterior is a boosted Schwarzschild spacetime. First, in the context of linearized theory, we consider such a Schwarzschild body which is initially at rest, then goes through a radiative stage and finally emerges as a boosted Schwarzschild body. We show that the proper retarded solution of the exterior Schwarzschild spacetime for this process can be described in terms of the ingoing Kerr-Schild form of the Schwarzschild metric for both the initial and final states. An outgoing Kerr-Schild or time symmetric metric does not give the proper solution. The special property of Kerr-Schild metrics that their linearized and nonlinear forms are identical allows us to extend this result to processes in the nonlinear regime. We then discuss how the nonlinear memory effect, and its associated supertranslation, affect angular momentum conservation. Our approach provides a new framework for studying nonlinear aspects of the memory effect.

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arXiv2016

Spectral Cauchy Characteristic Extraction of strain, news and gravitational radiation flux

We present a new approach for the Cauchy-characteristic extraction of gravitational radiation strain, news function, and the flux of the energy-momentum, supermomentum and angular momentum associated with the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs asymptotic symmetries. In Cauchy-characteristic extraction, a characteristic evolution code takes numerical data on an inner worldtube supplied by a Cauchy evolution code, and propagates it outwards to obtain the space-time metric in a neighborhood of null infinity. The metric is first determined in a scrambled form in terms of coordinates determined by the Cauchy formalism. In prior treatments, the waveform is first extracted from this metric and then transformed into an asymptotic inertial coordinate system. This procedure provides the physically proper description of the waveform and the radiated energy but it does not generalize to determine the flux of angular momentum or supermomentum. Here we formulate and implement a new approach which transforms the full metric into an asymptotic inertial frame and provides a uniform treatment of all the radiation fluxes associated with the asymptotic symmetries. Computations are performed and calibrated using the Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC).

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arXiv2016

The sky pattern of the linearized gravitational memory effect

The gravitational memory effect leads to a net displacement in the relative positions of test particles. This memory is related to the change in the strain of the gravitational radiation field between infinite past and infinite future retarded times. There are three known sources of the memory effect: (i) the loss of energy to future null infinity by massless fields or particles, (ii) the ejection of massive particles to infinity from a bound system and (iii) homogeneous, source-free gravitational waves. In the context of linearized theory, we show that asymptotic conditions controlling these known sources of the gravitational memory effect rule out any other possible sources with physically reasonable stress-energy tensors. Except for the source-free gravitational waves, the two other known sources produce gravitational memory with E-mode radiation strain, characterized by a certain curl-free sky pattern of their polarization. Thus our results show that the only known source of B-mode gravitational memory is of primordial origin, corresponding in the linearized theory to a homogeneous wave entering from past null infinity.

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arXiv2016

On solving the constraints by integrating a strongly hyperbolic system

It was shown recently that the constraints on the initial data for Einstein's equations may be posed as an evolutionary problem [9]. In one of the proposed two methods the constraints can be replaced by a first order symmetrizable hyperbolic system and a subsidiary algebraic relation. Here, by assuming that the initial data surface is smoothly foliated by a one-parameter family of topological two-spheres, the basic variables are recast in terms of spin-weighted fields. This allows one to replace all the angular derivatives in the evolutionary system by the Newman-Penrose $ð$ and $\barð$ operators which, in turn, opens up a new avenue to solve the constraints by integrating the resulting system using suitable numerical schemes. In particular, by replacing the $ð$ and $\barð$ operators either by a finite difference or by a pseudo-spectral representation or by applying a spectral decomposition in terms of spin-weighted spherical harmonics, the evolutionary equations may be put into the form of a coupled system of non-linear ordinary differential equations.

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arXiv2015

Gauge Invariant Spectral Cauchy Characteristic Extraction

We present gauge invariant spectral Cauchy characteristic extraction. We compare gravitational waveforms extracted from a head-on black hole merger simulated in two different gauges by two different codes. We show rapid convergence, demonstrating both gauge invariance of the extraction algorithm and consistency between the legacy Pitt null code and the much faster Spectral Einstein Code (SpEC).

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arXiv2015

Black hole initial data without elliptic equations

We explore whether a new method to solve the constraints of Einstein's equations, which does not involve elliptic equations, can be applied to provide initial data for black holes. We show that this method can be successfully applied to a nonlinear perturbation of a Schwarzschild black hole by establishing the well-posedness of the resulting constraint problem. We discuss its possible generalization to the boosted, spinning multiple black hole problem.

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arXiv2012

Boundary Conditions for the Gravitational Field

A review of the treatment of boundaries in general relativity is presented with the emphasis on application to the formulations of Einstein's equations used in numerical relativity. At present, it is known how to treat boundaries in the harmonic formulation of Einstein's equations and a tetrad formulation of the Einstein-Bianchi system. However, a universal approach valid for other formulations is not in hand. In particular, there is no satisfactory boundary theory for the 3+1 formulations which have been highly successful in binary black hole simulation. I discuss the underlying problems that make the initial-boundary value problem much more complicated than the Cauchy problem. I review the progress that has been made and the important open questions that remain.

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arXiv2012

Characteristic Evolution and Matching

I review the development of numerical evolution codes for general relativity based upon the characteristic initial value problem. Progress in characteristic evolution is traced from the early stage of 1D feasibility studies to 2D axisymmetric codes that accurately simulate the oscillations and gravitational collapse of relativistic stars and to current 3D codes that provide pieces of a binary black hole spacetime. Cauchy codes have now been successful at simulating all aspects of the binary black hole problem inside an artificially constructed outer boundary. A prime application of characteristic evolution is to extend such simulations to null infinity where the waveform from the binary inspiral and merger can be unambiguously computed. This has now been accomplished by Cauchy-characteristic extraction, where data for the characteristic evolution is supplied by Cauchy data on an extraction worldtube inside the artificial outer boundary. The ultimate application of characteristic evolution is to eliminate the role of this outer boundary by constructing a global solution via Cauchy-characteristic matching. Progress in this direction is discussed.

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arXiv2011

Worldtube conservation laws for the null-timelike evolution problem

I treat the worldtube constraints which arise in the null-timelike initial-boundary value problem for the Bondi-Sachs formulation of Einstein's equations. Boundary data on a worldtube and initial data on an outgoing null hypersurface determine the exterior spacetime by integration along the outgoing null geodsics. The worldtube constraints are a set of conservation laws which impose conditions on the integration constants. I show how these constraints lead to a well-posed initial value problem governing the extrinsic curvature of the worldtube, whose components are related to the integration constants. Possible applications to gravitational waveform extraction and to the well-posedness of the null-timelike initial-boundary value problem are discussed.

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arXiv2009

Disembodied boundary data for Einstein's equations

A strongly well-posed initial boundary value problem based upon constraint-preserving boundary conditions of the Sommerfeld type has been established for the harmonic formulation of the vacuum Einstein's equations. These Sommerfeld conditions have been previously presented in a 4-dimensional geometric form. Here we recast the associated boundary data as 3-dimensional tensor fields intrinsic to the boundary. This provides a geometric presentation of the boundary data analogous to the 3-dimensional presentation of Cauchy data in terms of 3-metric and extrinsic curvature. In particular, diffeomorphisms of the boundary data lead to vacuum spacetimes with isometric geometries. The proof of well-posedness is valid for the harmonic formulation and its generalizations. The Sommerfeld conditions can be directly applied to existing harmonic codes which have been used in simulating binary black holes, thus ensuring boundary stability of the underlying analytic system. The geometric form of the boundary conditions also allows them to be formally applied to any metric formulation of Einstein's equations, although well-posedness of the boundary problem is no longer ensured. We discuss to what extent such a formal application might be implemented in a constraint preserving manner to 3+1 formulations, such as the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura system which has been highly successful in binary black hole simulation.

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arXiv2009

Geometrization of metric boundary data for Einstein's equations

The principle part of Einstein equations in the harmonic gauge consists of a constrained system of 10 curved space wave equations for the components of the space-time metric. A well-posed initial boundary value problem based upon a new formulation of constraint-preserving boundary conditions of the Sommerfeld type has recently been established for such systems. In this paper these boundary conditions are recast in a geometric form. This serves as a first step toward their application to other metric formulations of Einstein's equations.

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arXiv2007

An explicit harmonic code for black-hole evolution using excision

We describe an explicit in time, finite-difference code designed to simulate black holes by using the excision method. The code is based upon the harmonic formulation of the Einstein equations and incorporates several features regarding the well-posedness and numerical stability of the initial-boundary problem for the quasilinear wave equation. After a discussion of the equations solved and of the techniques employed, we present a series of testbeds carried out to validate the code. Such tests range from the evolution of isolated black holes to the head-on collision of two black holes and then to a binary black hole inspiral and merger. Besides assessing the accuracy of the code, the inspiral and merger test has revealed that individual apparent horizons can touch and even intersect. This novel feature in the dynamics of the marginally trapped surfaces is unexpected but consistent with theorems on the properties of apparent horizons.

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