Reducing orbital eccentricity in binary black hole simulations

Document #:

LIGO-P070063-x0

Document type:

P - Publications

Abstract:

Binary black hole simulations starting from quasi-circular (i.e., zero radial velocity) initial data have orbits with small but nonzero orbital eccentricities. In this paper, the quasi-equilibrium initial-data method is extended to allow nonzero radial velocities to be specified in binary black hole initial data. New low-eccentricity initial data are obtained by adjusting the orbital frequency and radial velocities to minimize the orbital eccentricity, and the resulting (~5 orbit) evolutions are compared with those of quasi-circular initial data. Evolutions of the quasi-circular data clearly show eccentric orbits, with eccentricity that decays over time. The precise decay rate depends on the definition of eccentricity; if defined in terms of variations in the orbital frequency, the decay rate agrees well with the prediction of Peters (1964 Phys. Rev. 136 1224–32). The gravitational waveforms, which contain ~8 cycles in the dominant l = m = 2 mode, are largely unaffected by the eccentricity of the quasi-circular initial data. The overlap between the dominant mode in the quasi-circular evolution and the same mode in the low-eccentricity evolution is about 0.99.

Files in Document:

• P070063-00.pdf (752.5 kB)

Topics:

• Document Migration from the old DCC
• Public relations

Authors:

• Duncan Brown
• Lawrence Kidder
• Lee Lindblom
• Geoffrey Lovelace
• Harald Pfeiffer
• Mark Scheel

Notes and Changes:

Rev P070063-00-Z:
- Full document number: LIGO-P070063-00-Z
- Author(s): Duncan Brown; Lawrence E. Kidder; Lee Lindblom; Geoffrey Lovelace; Harald P. Pfeiffer; Mark A. Scheel
- Document date: 2007-04-25
- Document received date: 2007-05-14
- Document entry date: 2007-05-14
- Citation reference: Classical Quantum Gravity

Journal References:

Published in Class Quant Grav vol. 24 pg. S59-S81.

Publication Information:

http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0264-9381/24/12/S06