Mergers of black-hole binaries with aligned spins: Waveform characteristics

Journal Article · Sat Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.84.084009· OSTI ID:21607893

Kelly, Bernard J ^[1]; Baker, John G; Centrella, Joan ^[2]; Boggs, William D ^[3]; McWilliams, Sean T ^[4]

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1. CRESST and Gravitational Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
2. Gravitational Astrophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 (United States)
3. Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 (United States)
4. Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics (ISCAP), Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 (United States)

We conduct a descriptive analysis of the multipolar structure of gravitational-radiation waveforms from equal-mass aligned-spin mergers, following an approach first presented in the complementary context of nonspinning black holes of varying mass ratio [J. G. Baker et al., Phys. Rev. D 78, 044046 (2008).]. We find that, as with the nonspinning mergers, the dominant waveform mode phases evolve together in lock-step through inspiral and merger, supporting the previous waveform description in terms of an adiabatically rigid rotator driving gravitational-wave emission--an implicit rotating source. We further apply the late-time merger-ringdown model for the rotational frequency introduced in [J. G. Baker et al., Phys. Rev. D 78, 044046 (2008).], along with an improved amplitude model appropriate for the dominant (2, {+-}2) modes. This provides a quantitative description of the merger-ringdown waveforms, and suggests that the major features of these waveforms can be described with reference only to the intrinsic parameters associated with the state of the final black hole formed in the merger. We provide an explicit model for the merger-ringdown radiation, and demonstrate that this model agrees to fitting factors better than 95% with the original numerical waveforms for system masses above {approx}150M{sub {center_dot}}. This model may be directly applicable to gravitational-wave detection of intermediate-mass black-hole mergers.

• OSTI ID: 21607893
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 84; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
AMPLITUDES
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
BINARY STARS
BLACK HOLES
EMISSION
GRAVITATIONAL RADIATION
GRAVITATIONAL WAVES
MASS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
SPIN
STARS
WAVE FORMS