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Wolfgang Tichy

Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Tichy.

65 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Calibration of Moving Puncture Simulations

We present single and binary black hole simulations that follow the moving puncture paradigm of simulating black-hole spacetimes without excision, and use moving boxes mesh refinement. Focussing on binary black hole configurations where the simulations cover roughly two orbits, we address five major issues determining the quality of our results: numerical discretization error, finite extraction radius of the radiation signal, physical appropriateness of initial data, gauge choice and computational performance. We also compare results we have obtained with the BAM code described here with the independent LEAN code.

gr-qc↗

Black hole evolution with the BSSN system by pseudo-spectral methods

We present a new pseudo-spectral code for the simulation of evolution systems that are second order in space. We test this code by evolving a non-linear scalar wave equation. These non-linear waves can be stably evolved using very simple constant or radiative boundary conditions, which we show to be well-posed in the scalar wave case. The main motivation for this work, however, is to evolve black holes for the first time with the BSSN system by means of a spectral method. We use our new code to simulate the evolution of a single black hole using all applicable methods that are usually employed when the BSSN system is used together with finite differencing methods. In particular, we use black hole excision and test standard radiative and also constant outer boundary conditions. Furthermore, we study different gauge choices such as $1+\log$ and constant densitized lapse. We find that these methods in principle do work also with our spectral method. However, our simulations fail after about $100M$ due to unstable exponentially growing modes. The reason for this failure may be that we evolve the black hole on a full grid without imposing any symmetries. Such full grid instabilities have also been observed when finite differencing methods are used to evolve excised black holes with the BSSN system.

gr-qc↗

Improved initial data for black hole binaries by asymptotic matching of post-Newtonian and perturbed black hole solutions

We construct approximate initial data for non-spinning black hole binary systems by asymptotically matching the 4-metrics of two tidally perturbed Schwarzschild solutions in isotropic coordinates to a resummed post-Newtonian 4-metric in ADMTT coordinates. The specific matching procedure used here closely follows the calculation in gr-qc/0503011, and is performed in the so called buffer zone where both the post-Newtonian and the perturbed Schwarzschild approximations hold. The result is that both metrics agree in the buffer zone, up to the errors in the approximations. However, since isotropic coordinates are very similar to ADMTT coordinates, matching yields better results than in the previous calculation, where harmonic coordinates were used for the post-Newtonian 4-metric. In particular, not only does matching improve in the buffer zone, but due to the similarity between ADMTT and isotropic coordinates the two metrics are also close to each other near the black hole horizons. With the help of a transition function we also obtain a global smooth 4-metric which has errors on the order of the error introduced by the more accurate of the two approximations we match. This global smoothed out 4-metric is obtained in ADMTT coordinates which are not horizon penetrating. In addition, we construct a further coordinate transformation that takes the 4-metric from global ADMTT coordinates to new coordinates which are similar to Kerr-Schild coordinates near each black hole, but which remain ADMTT further away from the black holes. These new coordinates are horizon penetrating and lead, for example, to a lapse which is everywhere positive on the t=0 slice. Such coordinates may be more useful in numerical simulations.

gr-qc↗

A single-domain spectral method for black hole puncture data

We calculate puncture initial data corresponding to both single and binary black hole solutions of the constraint equations by means of a pseudo-spectral method applied in a single spatial domain. Introducing appropriate coordinates, these methods exhibit rapid convergence of the conformal factor and lead to highly accurate solutions. As an application we investigate small mass ratios of binary black holes and compare these with the corresponding test mass limit that we obtain through a semi-analytical limiting procedure. In particular, we compare the binding energy of puncture data in this limit with that of a test particle in the Schwarzschild spacetime and find that it deviates by 50% from the Schwarzschild result at the innermost stable circular orbit of Schwarzschild, if the ADM mass at each puncture is used to define the local black hole masses.

gr-qc↗

Numerical simulation of orbiting black holes

We present numerical simulations of binary black hole systems which for the first time last for about one orbital period for close but still separate black holes as indicated by the absence of a common apparent horizon. An important part of the method is the construction of comoving coordinates, in which both the angular and radial motion is minimized through a dynamically adjusted shift condition. We use fixed mesh refinement for computational efficiency.

gr-qc↗

Numerical stability of the AA evolution system compared to the ADM and BSSN systems

We explore the numerical stability properties of an evolution system suggested by Alekseenko and Arnold. We examine its behavior on a set of standardized testbeds, and we evolve a single black hole with different gauges. Based on a comparison with two other evolution systems with well-known properties, we discuss some of the strengths and limitations of such simple tests in predicting numerical stability in general.

gr-qc↗

Quasi-equilibrium binary black hole sequences for puncture data derived from helical Killing vector conditions

We construct a sequence of binary black hole puncture data derived under the assumptions (i) that the ADM mass of each puncture as measured in the asymptotically flat space at the puncture stays constant along the sequence, and (ii) that the orbits along the sequence are quasi-circular in the sense that several necessary conditions for the existence of a helical Killing vector are satisfied. These conditions are equality of ADM and Komar mass at infinity and equality of the ADM and a rescaled Komar mass at each puncture. In this paper we explicitly give results for the case of an equal mass black hole binary without spin, but our approach can also be applied in the general case. We find that up to numerical accuracy the apparent horizon mass also remains constant along the sequence and that the prediction for the innermost stable circular orbit is similar to what has been found with the effective potential method.

gr-qc↗

Gauge conditions for binary black hole puncture data based on an approximate helical Killing vector

We show that puncture data for quasicircular binary black hole orbits allow a special gauge choice that realizes some of the necessary conditions for the existence of an approximate helical Killing vector field. Introducing free parameters for the lapse at the punctures we can satisfy the condition that the Komar and ADM mass agree at spatial infinity. Several other conditions for an approximate Killing vector are then automatically satisfied, and the 3-metric evolves on a timescale smaller than the orbital timescale. The time derivative of the extrinsic curvature however remains significant. Nevertheless, quasicircular puncture data are not as far from possessing a helical Killing vector as one might have expected.

gr-qc↗

Can the post-Newtonian gravitational waveform of an inspiraling binary be improved by solving the energy balance equation numerically?

The detection of gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries using matched filtering depends crucially on the availability of accurate template waveforms. We determine whether the accuracy of the templates' phasing can be improved by solving the post-Newtonian energy balance equation numerically, rather than (as is normally done) analytically within the post-Newtonian perturbative expansion. By specializing to the limit of a small mass ratio, we find evidence that there is no gain in accuracy.

gr-qc↗

How unique is the expected stress-energy tensor of a massive scalar field?

We show that the set of ambiguities in the renormalized expected stress-energy tensor allowed by the Wald axioms is much larger for a massive scalar field (an infinite number of free parameters) than for a massless scalar field (two free parameters). We also use the closed-time-path effective action formalism of Schwinger to calculate the expected value of the stress-energy tensor in the incoming vacuum state, for a massive scalar field, on any spacetime which is a linear perturbation off Minkowski spacetime. This result generalizes an earlier result of Horowitz and also Jordan in the massless case, and can be used as a testbed for comparing different calculational methods.

gr-qc↗

Parity-Affected Superconductivity in Ultrasmall Metallic Grains

We investigate the breakdown of BCS superconductivity in {\em ultra}\/small metallic grains as a function of particle size (characterized by the mean spacing $d$ between discrete electronic eigenstates), and the parity ($P$ = even/odd) of the number of electrons on the island. Assuming equally spaced levels, we solve the parity-dependent BCS gap equation for the order parameter $Δ_P (d,T)$. Both the $T=0$ critical level spacing $d_{c,P} $ and the critical temperature $T_{c,P} (d)$ at which $Δ_P = 0$ are parity dependent, and both are so much smaller in the odd than the even case that these differences should be measurable in current experiments.

cond-mat↗