Close encounters of three black holes
- Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation, School of Mathematical Sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology, 78 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States)
We present the first fully relativistic long-term numerical evolutions of three equal-mass black holes in a system consisting of a third black hole in a close orbit about a black-hole binary. These close-three-black-hole systems have very different merger dynamics from black-hole binaries; displaying complex trajectories, a redistribution of energy that can impart substantial kicks to one of the holes, distinctive waveforms, and suppression of the emitted gravitational radiation. In one configuration the binary is quickly disrupted and the individual holes follow complicated trajectories and merge with the third hole in rapid succession, while in another, the binary completes a half-orbit before the initial merger of one of the members with the third black hole, and the resulting two-black-hole system forms a highly elliptical, well separated binary that shows no significant inspiral for (at least) the first t{approx}1000M of evolution.
- OSTI ID:
- 21210173
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 77, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.77.101501; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Binary black hole merger gravitational waves and recoil in the large mass ratio limit
Long-term Evolution of Tightly Packed Stellar Black Holes in AGN Disks: Formation of Merging Black Hole Binaries via Close Encounters