arXiv subjects

Yosef Zlochower

Publications and source records attributed to Yosef Zlochower.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

The second RIT binary black hole simulations catalog and its application to gravitational waves parameter estimation

The RIT numerical relativity group is releasing the second public catalog of black-hole-binary waveforms \url{http://ccrg.rit.edu/~RITCatalog}. This release consists of 320 accurate simulations that include 46 precessing and 274 nonprecessing binary systems with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/6\leq q\leq1$ and individual spins up to $s/m^2=0.95$. The new catalog contains search and ordering tools for the waveforms based on initial parameters of the binary, trajectory information, peak radiation, and final remnant black hole properties. The final black hole remnant properties provided here can be used to model the merger of black-hole binaries from its initial configurations. The waveforms are extrapolated to infinite observer location and can be used to independently interpret gravitational wave signals from laser interferometric detectors. As an application of this waveform catalog we reanalyze the signal of GW150914 implementing parameter estimation techniques that make use of only numerical waveforms without any reference to information from phenomenological models.

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arXiv2018

Numerical Relativity of Compact Binaries in the 21st Century

We review the dramatic progress in the simulations of compact objects and compact-object binaries that has taken place in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. This includes simulations of the inspirals and violent mergers of binaries containing black holes and neutron stars, as well as simulations of black-hole formation through failed supernovae and high-mass neutron star--neutron star mergers. Modeling such events requires numerical integration of the field equations of general relativity in three spatial dimensions, coupled, in the case of neutron-star containing binaries, with increasingly sophisticated treatment of fluids, electromagnetic fields, and neutrino radiation. However, it was not until 2005 that accurate long-term evolutions of binaries containing black holes were even possible. Since then, there has been an explosion of new results and insights into the physics of strongly-gravitating system. Particular emphasis has been placed on understanding the gravitational wave and electromagnetic signatures from these extreme events. And with the recent dramatic discoveries of gravitational waves from merging black holes by the Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory and Virgo, and the subsequent discovery of both electromagnetic and gravitational wave signals from a merging neutron star binary, numerical relativity became an indispensable tool for the new field of multimessenger astronomy.

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arXiv2018

Numerical relativity in spherical coordinates with the Einstein Toolkit

Numerical relativity codes that do not make assumptions on spatial symmetries most commonly adopt Cartesian coordinates. While these coordinates have many attractive features, spherical coordinates are much better suited to take advantage of approximate symmetries in a number of astrophysical objects, including single stars, black holes and accretion disks. While the appearance of coordinate singularities often spoils numerical relativity simulations in spherical coordinates, especially in the absence of any symmetry assumptions, it has recently been demonstrated that these problems can be avoided if the coordinate singularities are handled analytically. This is possible with the help of a reference-metric version of the Baumgarte-Shapiro-Shibata-Nakamura formulation together with a proper rescaling of tensorial quantities. In this paper we report on an implementation of this formalism in the Einstein Toolkit. We adapt the Einstein Toolkit infrastructure, originally designed for Cartesian coordinates, to handle spherical coordinates, by providing appropriate boundary conditions at both inner and outer boundaries. We perform numerical simulations for a disturbed Kerr black hole, extract the gravitational wave signal, and demonstrate that the noise in these signals is orders of magnitude smaller when computed on spherical grids rather than Cartesian grids. With the public release of our new Einstein Toolkit thorns, our methods for numerical relativity in spherical coordinates will become available to the entire numerical relativity community.

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arXiv2018

Comparing an analytical spacetime metric for a merging binary to a fully nonlinear numerical evolution using curvature scalars

We introduce a new geometrically invariant prescription for comparing two different spacetimes based on geodesic deviation. We use this method to compare a family of recently introduced analytical spacetime representing inspiraling black-hole binaries to fully nonlinear numerical solutions to the Einstein equations. Our method can be used to improve analytical spacetime models by providing a local measure of the effects that violations of the Einstein equations will have on timelike geodesics, and indirectly, gas dynamics. We also discuss the advantages and limitations of this method.

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arXiv2017

Targeted numerical simulations of binary black holes for GW170104

In response to LIGO's observation of GW170104, we performed a series of full numerical simulations of binary black holes, each designed to replicate likely realizations of its dynamics and radiation. These simulations have been performed at multiple resolutions and with two independent techniques to solve Einstein's equations. For the nonprecessing and precessing simulations, we demonstrate the two techniques agree mode by mode, at a precision substantially in excess of statistical uncertainties in current LIGO's observations. Conversely, we demonstrate our full numerical solutions contain information which is not accurately captured with the approximate phenomenological models commonly used to infer compact binary parameters. To quantify the impact of these differences on parameter inference for GW170104 specifically, we compare the predictions of our simulations and these approximate models to LIGO's observations of GW170104.

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arXiv2017

Evolutions of unequal mass, highly spinning black hole binaries

We evolve a binary black hole system bearing a mass ratio of $q=m_1/m_2=2/3$ and individual spins of $S^z_1/m_1^2=0.95$ and $S^z_2/m_2^2=-0.95$ in a configuration where the large black hole has its spin antialigned with the orbital angular momentum, $L^z$, and the small black hole has its spin aligned with $L^z$. This configuration was chosen to measure the maximum recoil of the remnant black hole for nonprecessing binaries. We find that the remnant black hole recoils at 500km/s, the largest recorded value from numerical simulations for aligned spin configurations. The remnant mass, spin, and gravitational waveform peak luminosity and frequency also provide a valuable point in parameter space for source modeling.

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arXiv2017

Evolutions of Nearly Maximally Spinning Black Hole Binaries Using the Moving Puncture Approach

We demonstrate that numerical relativity codes based on the moving punctures formalism are capable of evolving nearly maximally spinning black hole binaries. We compare a new evolution of an equal-mass, aligned-spin binary with dimensionless spin chi=0.99 using puncture-based data with recent simulations of the SXS Collaboration. We find that the overlap of our new waveform with the published results of the SXS Collaboration is larger than 0.999. To generate our new waveform, we use the recently introduced HiSpID puncture data, the CCZ4 evolution system, and a modified lapse condition that helps keep the horizon radii reasonably large.

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arXiv2017

A Parameter Estimation Method that Directly Compares Gravitational Wave Observations to Numerical Relativity

We present and assess a Bayesian method to interpret gravitational wave signals from binary black holes. Our method directly compares gravitational wave data to numerical relativity simulations. This procedure bypasses approximations used in semi-analytical models for compact binary coalescence. In this work, we use only the full posterior parameter distribution for generic nonprecessing binaries, drawing inferences away from the set of NR simulations used, via interpolation of a single scalar quantity (the marginalized log-likelihood, $\ln {\cal L}$) evaluated by comparing data to nonprecessing binary black hole simulations. We also compare the data to generic simulations, and discuss the effectiveness of this procedure for generic sources. We specifically assess the impact of higher order modes, repeating our interpretation with both $l\le2$ as well as $l\le3$ harmonic modes. Using the $l\le3$ higher modes, we gain more information from the signal and can better constrain the parameters of the gravitational wave signal. We assess and quantify several sources of systematic error that our procedure could introduce, including simulation resolution and duration; most are negligible. We show through examples that our method can recover the parameters for equal mass, zero spin; GW150914-like; and unequal mass, precessing spin sources. Our study of this new parameter estimation method demonstrates we can quantify and understand the systematic and statistical error. This method allows us to use higher order modes from numerical relativity simulations to better constrain the black hole binary parameters.

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arXiv2017

The nonspinning binary black hole merger scenario revisited

We present the results of 14 simulations of nonspinning black hole binaries with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/100\leq q\leq1$. For each of these simulations we perform three runs at increasing resolution to assess the finite difference errors and to extrapolate the results to infinite resolution. For $q\geq 1/6$, we follow the evolution of the binary typically for the last ten orbits prior to merger. By fitting the results of these simulations, we accurately model the peak luminosity, peak waveform frequency and amplitude, and the recoil of the remnant hole for unequal mass nonspinning binaries. We verify the accuracy of these new models and compare them to previously existing empirical formulas. These new fits provide a basis for a hierarchical approach to produce more accurate remnant formulas in the generic precessing case. They also provide input to gravitational waveform modeling.

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arXiv2017

Modeling the Black hole Merger of QSO 3C 186

Recent detailed observations of the radio-loud quasar 3C 186 indicate the possibility that a supermassive recoiling black hole is moving away from the host galaxy at a speed of nearly 2100km/s. If this is the case, we can model the mass ratio and spins of the progenitor binary black hole using the results of numerical relativity simulations. We find that the black holes in the progenitor must have comparable masses with a mass ratio $q=m_1/m_2>1/4$ and the spin of the primary black hole must be $α_2=S_2/m_2^2>0.4$. The final remnant of the merger is bounded by $α_f>0.45$ and at least $4\%$ of the total mass of the binary system is radiated into gravitational waves. We consider four different pre-merger scenarios that further narrow those values. Assuming, for instance, a cold accretion driven merger model, we find that the binary had comparable masses with $q=0.70^{+0.29}_{-0.21}$ and the normalized spins of the larger and smaller black holes were $α_2=0.94^{+0.06}_{-0.22}$ and $α_1=0.95^{+0.05}_{-0.09}$. We can also estimate the final recoiling black hole spin $α_f=0.93^{+0.02}_{-0.03}$ and that the system radiated $9.6^{+0.8}_{-1.4}\%$ of its total mass, making the merger of those black holes the most energetic event ever observed.

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arXiv2017

The RIT binary black hole simulations catalog

The RIT numerical relativity group is releasing a public catalog of black-hole-binary waveforms. The initial release of the catalog consists of 126 recent simulations that include precessing and non precessing systems with mass ratios $q=m_1/m_2$ in the range $1/6\leq q\leq1$. The catalog contains information about the initial data of the simulation, the waveforms extrapolated to infinity, as well as information about the peak luminosity and final remnant black hole properties. These waveforms can be used to independently interpret gravitational wave signals from laser interferometric detectors and

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arXiv2017

Puncture Initial Data for Black-Hole Binaries with High Spins and High Boosts

We solve the Hamiltonian and momentum constraints of general relativity for two black holes with nearly extremal spins and relativistic boosts in the puncture formalism. We use a non-conformally-flat ansatz with an attenuated superposition of two Lorentz-boosted, conformally Kerr or conformally Schwarzschild 3-metrics and their corresponding extrinsic curvatures. We compare evolutions of these data with the standard Bowen-York conformally flat ansatz (technically limited to intrinsic spins $χ=S/M^2_{\text{ADM}}=0.928$ and boosts $P/M_{\text{ADM}}=0.897$), finding, typically, an order of magnitude smaller burst of spurious radiation and agreement with inspiral and merger. As a first case study, we evolve two equal-mass black holes from rest with an initial separation of $d=12M$ and spins $χ_i=S_i/m_i^2=0.99$, compute the waveforms produced by the collision, the energy and angular momentum radiated, and the recoil of the final remnant black hole. We find that the black-hole trajectories curve at close separations, leading to the radiation of angular momentum. We also study orbiting nonspinning and moderate-spin black-hole binaries and compare these with standard Bowen-York data. We find a substantial reduction in the nonphysical initial burst of radiation which leads to cleaner waveforms. Finally, we study the case of orbiting binary black-hole systems with spin magnitude $χ_i=0.95$ in an aligned configuration and compare waveform and final remnant results with those of the SXS Collaboration, finding excellent agreement. This represents the first moving punctures evolution of orbiting and spinning black holes exceeding the Bowen-York limit. Finally, we study different choices of the initial lapse and lapse evolution equation in the moving punctures approach to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the simulations.

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arXiv2016

High Energy Collisions of Black Holes Numerically Revisited

We use fully nonlinear numerical relativity techniques to study high energy head-on collision of nonspinning, equal-mass black holes to estimate the maximum gravitational radiation emitted by these systems. Our simulations include improvements in the construction of initial data, subsequent full numerical evolutions, and the computation of waveforms at infinity. The new initial data significantly reduces the spurious radiation content, allowing for initial speeds much closer to the speed of light, i.e. $v\sim0.99c$. Using these new techniques, We estimate the maximum radiated energy from head-on collisions to be $E_{\text{max}}/M_{\text{ADM}}=0.13\pm0.01$. This value differs from the second-order perturbative $(0.164)$ and zero-frequency-limit $(0.17)$ analytic computations, but is close to those obtained by thermodynamic arguments $(0.134)$ and by previous numerical estimates $(0.14\pm0.03)$.

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arXiv2016

Modeling the remnant mass, spin, and recoil from unequal-mass, precessing black-hole binaries: The Intermediate Mass Ratio Regime

We revisit the modeling of the properties of the remnant black hole resulting the merger of a black-hole binary as a function of the parameters of the binary. We provide a set of empirical formulas for the final mass, spin and recoil velocity of the final black hole as a function of the mass ratio and individual spins of the progenitor. In order to determine the fitting coefficients for these formulas, we perform a set of 128 new numerical evolutions of precessing, unequal-mass black-hole binaries, and fit to the resulting remnant mass, spin, and recoil. In order to reduce the complexity of the analysis, we chose configurations that have one of the black holes spinning, with dimensionless spin alpha=0.8, at different angles with respect to the orbital angular momentum, and the other non-spinning. In addition to evolving families of binaries with different spin-inclination angles, we also evolved binaries with mass ratios as small as q=1/6. We use the resulting empirical formulas to predict the probabilities of black hole mergers leading to a given recoil velocity, total radiated gravitational energy, and final black hole spin.

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arXiv2016

Modeling the source of GW150914 with targeted numerical-relativity simulations

In fall of 2015, the two LIGO detectors measured the gravitational wave signal GW150914, which originated from a pair of merging black holes. In the final 0.2 seconds (about 8 gravitational-wave cycles) before the amplitude reached its maximum, the observed signal swept up in amplitude and frequency, from 35 Hz to 150 Hz. The theoretical gravitational-wave signal for merging black holes, as predicted by general relativity, can be computed only by full numerical relativity, because analytic approximations fail near the time of merger. Moreover, the nearly-equal masses, moderate spins, and small number of orbits of GW150914 are especially straightforward and efficient to simulate with modern numerical-relativity codes. In this paper, we report the modeling of GW150914 with numerical-relativity simulations, using black-hole masses and spins consistent with those inferred from LIGO's measurement. In particular, we employ two independent numerical-relativity codes that use completely different analytical and numerical methods to model the same merging black holes and to compute the emitted gravitational waveform; we find excellent agreement between the waveforms produced by the two independent codes. These results demonstrate the validity, impact, and potential of current and future studies using rapid-response, targeted numerical-relativity simulations for better understanding gravitational-wave observations.

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arXiv2016

Inspiraling black-hole binary spacetimes: Challenges in transitioning from analytical to numerical techniques

We explore how a recently developed analytical black-hole binary spacetime can be extended using numerical simulations to go beyond the slow-inspiral phase. The analytic spacetime solves the Einstein field equations approximately, with the approximation error becoming progressively smaller the more separated the binary. To continue the spacetime beyond the slow-inspiral phase, we need to transition. Such a transition was previously explored at smaller separations. Here, we perform this transition at a separation of D=20M (large enough that the analytical metric is expected to be accurate), and evolve for six orbits. We find that small constraint violations can have large dynamical effects, but these can be removed by using a constraint-damping system like the conformal covariant formulation of the Z4 system. We find agreement between the subsequent numerical spacetime and the predictions of post-Newtonian theory for the waveform and inspiral rate that is within the post-Newtonian truncation error.

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arXiv2015

Resolving the relative influence of strong field spacetime dynamics and MHD on circumbinary disk physics

In this paper we evolve magnetized and unmagnetized circumbinary accretion disks around supermassive black hole binaries in the relativistic regime. We use a post-Newtonian expansion to construct an analytical spacetime and determine how the order of the post-Newtonian (PN) expansion affects the dynamics of the gas. We find very small differences in the late-time bulk dynamics of non-magnetized hydrodynamic evolutions between the two spacetimes down to separations of approximately $40GM/c^2$ where $M$ is the total mass of the binary. For smaller separations, the differences due to PN-order become comparable to differences caused by using initial data further from equilibrium. For magnetized gas, MHD stresses, which drives the accretion dynamics, tends to mask all higher order PN effects even at separations of $20GM/c^2$, leading to essentially the same observed electromagnetic luminosity. This implies that our calculations of the EM signal may be robust down to small binary separations. Our investigation is the first to demonstrate how the level of PN accuracy affects a circumbinary disk's evolution and informs us of the range in separation within which to trust the PN approximation for this kind of study. We also address the influence the initial conditions and binary separation have on simulation predictions.

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arXiv2014

Remnant mass, spin, and recoil from spin aligned black-hole binaries

We perform a set of 36 nonprecessing black-hole binary simulations with spins either aligned or counteraligned with the orbital angular momentum in order to model the final mass, spin, and recoil of the merged black hole as a function of the individual black hole spin magnitudes and the mass ratio of the progenitors. We find that the maximum recoil for these configurations is $V_{max}=526\pm23\,km/s$, which occurs when the progenitor spins are maximal, the mass ratio is $q_{max}=m_1/m_2=0.623\pm0.038$, the smaller black-hole spin is aligned with the orbital angular momentum, and the larger black-hole spin is counteraligned ($α_1=-α_2=1$). This maximum recoil is about $80\,km/s$ larger than previous estimates, but most importantly, because the maximum occurs for smaller mass ratios, the probability for a merging binary to recoil faster than $400\,km/s$ can be as large as $17\%$, while the probability for recoils faster than $250\, km/s$ can be as large as $45\%$. We provide explicit phenomenological formulas for the final mass, spin, and recoil as a function of the individual BH spins and the mass difference between the two black holes. Here we include terms up through fourth-order in the initial spins and mass difference, and find excellent agreement (within a few percent) with independent results available in the literature. The maximum radiated energy is $E_{\rm rad}/m\approx11.3\%$ and final spin $α_{\rm rem}^{\rm max}\approx0.952$ for equal mass, aligned maximally spinning binaries.

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