Eccentric Corrections to the Mass and Spin of a Black Hole Merger Remnant
Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Advisor
Marc Favata
Access Type
Event
Start Date
26-4-2023 12:30 PM
End Date
26-4-2023 1:30 PM
Description
Gravitational wave astronomy is a developing field which uses the ripples in spacetime to discover and study systems of compact objects like black hole binaries. Detections are made using kilometer-long interferometers like LIGO and VIRGO. The observed binaries consist of a pair of orbiting black holes that inspiral toward each other as gravitational waves reduce the orbital energy. These inspiralling objects merge, leaving a remnant black hole with new properties that are encoded in the emitted gravitational waves. Templates of these waves are made to match with the noisy stream of detector data and detect these systems. It is important to understand the behavior of the masses and spins of these systems when interpreting detector data. The predicted mass and spin can also be used to test the validity of Einstein’s General Relativity when comparing the observed and theoretical data. While black hole binaries tend to circularize during the inspiral phase, their orbits may still have a considerable eccentricity just before the merger phase. This could cause an error in the calculation of the remnant black hole’s properties. Here we include eccentricity in the calculation of the final mass and spin of the remnant black hole. The final mass is determined via an energy-conservation argument, while the final spin is determined via angular momentum conservation. We compare our results with data from Numerical Relativity simulations of black hole collisions.
Eccentric Corrections to the Mass and Spin of a Black Hole Merger Remnant
Gravitational wave astronomy is a developing field which uses the ripples in spacetime to discover and study systems of compact objects like black hole binaries. Detections are made using kilometer-long interferometers like LIGO and VIRGO. The observed binaries consist of a pair of orbiting black holes that inspiral toward each other as gravitational waves reduce the orbital energy. These inspiralling objects merge, leaving a remnant black hole with new properties that are encoded in the emitted gravitational waves. Templates of these waves are made to match with the noisy stream of detector data and detect these systems. It is important to understand the behavior of the masses and spins of these systems when interpreting detector data. The predicted mass and spin can also be used to test the validity of Einstein’s General Relativity when comparing the observed and theoretical data. While black hole binaries tend to circularize during the inspiral phase, their orbits may still have a considerable eccentricity just before the merger phase. This could cause an error in the calculation of the remnant black hole’s properties. Here we include eccentricity in the calculation of the final mass and spin of the remnant black hole. The final mass is determined via an energy-conservation argument, while the final spin is determined via angular momentum conservation. We compare our results with data from Numerical Relativity simulations of black hole collisions.