Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Hole Coalescence
Abstract
Binary black hole coalescence is expected to be a major source of gravitational radiation. Ground-based detectors will be sensitive to stellar black hole systems, while the space-based detector LISA may observe the coalescence of massive black holes up to M ~ 107 Msun. In all cases, predicting the resulting waveforms requires 3-D simulations of the full Einstein equations. We report on the first gravitational radiation waveform calculations based on astrophysically plausible initial data. These are carried out using a new technique that combines the full numerical approach to solve the Einstein equations in the truly non-linear regime, with linearized perturbation theory around the final distorted single black hole at later times. Starting with non-spinning binary black holes from near the innermost stable circular orbit, we find that about 3% of the system's total mass-energy is suddenly converted to gravitational waves.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AAS...19911403B