Article

# On the mass radiated by coalescing black-hole binaries

(Impact Factor: 5.99). 06/2012; 758(1). DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/63
Source: arXiv

ABSTRACT

We derive an analytic phenomenological expression that predicts the final
mass of the black-hole remnant resulting from the merger of a generic binary
system of black holes on quasi-circular orbits. Besides recovering the correct
test-particle limit for extreme mass-ratio binaries, our formula reproduces
well the results of all the numerical-relativity simulations published so far,
both when applied at separations of a few gravitational radii, and when applied
at separations of tens of thousands of gravitational radii. These validations
make our formula a useful tool in a variety of contexts ranging from
gravitational-wave physics to cosmology. As representative examples, we first
illustrate how it can be used to decrease the phase error of the
effective-one-body waveforms during the ringdown phase. Second, we show that,
when combined with the recently computed self-force correction to the binding
energy of nonspinning black-hole binaries, it provides an estimate of the
energy emitted during the merger and ringdown. Finally, we use it to calculate
the energy radiated in gravitational waves by massive black-hole binaries as a
function of redshift, using different models for the seeds of the black-hole
population.

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Physical review D: Particles and fields 04/2013; 88(2). DOI:10.1103/PhysRevD.88.024040 · 4.86 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The behavior of merging black holes (including the emitted gravitational waves and the properties of the remnant) can currently be computed only by numerical simulations. This paper introduces ten numerical relativity simulations of binary black holes with equal masses and equal spins aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. The initial spin magnitudes have $|\chi_i| \lesssim 0.95$ and are more concentrated in the aligned direction because of the greater astrophysical interest of this case. We combine this data with five previously reported simulations of the same configuration, but with different spin magnitudes, including the highest spin simulated to date, $\chi_i \approx 0.97$. This data set is sufficiently accurate to enable us to offer improved analytic fitting formulae for the final spin and for the energy radiated by gravitational waves as a function of initial spin. The improved fitting formulae can help to improve our understanding of the properties of binary black hole merger remnants and can be used to enhance future approximate waveforms for gravitational wave searches, such as Effective-One-Body waveforms.
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