Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2012
Volume 57, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, March 31–April 3 2012; Atlanta, Georgia
Session D4: Invited Session: Analytical Relativity Meets Numerical Relativity |
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Sponsoring Units: GGR Chair: Emanuele Berti, University of Mississippi/California Institute of Technology Room: International Ballroom North |
Saturday, March 31, 2012 3:30PM - 4:06PM |
D4.00001: Interfacing analytical- and numerical relativity for gravitational-wave astronomy Invited Speaker: Ajith Parameswaran Binary black-hole coalescences -- some of the most energetic events in the Universe -- are also among the most promising sources for the first direct detection of gravitational waves (GWs). The recent progress in analytical- and numerical relativity has enabled us to model the coalescence of binary black holes accurately. This has important implications in GW astronomy: Firstly, this will dramatically improve the sensitivity of the searches for GWs from binary black holes, and hence the expected detection rates. Secondly, this will significantly enhance our ability to estimate the source parameters, thus making GW observations an excellent astronomical tool. This talk will summarize the status and prospects of interfacing analytical- and numerical relativity, and its implications in GW astronomy. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 31, 2012 4:06PM - 4:42PM |
D4.00002: The overlap of numerical relativity, perturbation theory and post-Newtonian theory in the binary black hole problem Invited Speaker: Alexandre Le Tiec Inspiralling and coalescing binary black holes are among the most promising sources of gravitational radiation to be detected by current ground-based interferometers and future space-based antennas. The detection and analysis of the signals from these highly relativistic sources require very accurate theoretical predictions, for use as gravitational-wave templates to be compared to the output of the detectors. The orbital dynamics and gravitational-wave emission of such systems can be investigated using a variety of approximation schemes and numerical methods in General Relativity: the post-Newtonian formalism, black hole perturbation theory, numerical relativity, and the effective-one-body framework. The last years have seen an increasing amount of activity at the multiple interfaces of all of these analytical and numerical techniques. I will review this recent work, emphasizing the use of coordinate invariant relations to perform meaningful comparisons. Some highlights include (i) the remarkable agreement between the predictions of the various methods, and (ii) the surprising observation that perturbation theory may turn out to be useful in the modelling of comparable mass binary black holes. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, March 31, 2012 4:42PM - 5:18PM |
D4.00003: Binary black hole mergers: astrophysics and implications for space-based gravitational-wave detectors Invited Speaker: Ryan Lang Massive black holes (MBHs) can be found at the centers of nearly all galaxies. When galaxies merge, the black holes form a binary, which eventually coalesces due to the emission of gravitational waves. The final merger is a complicated process which can only be understood by numerically integrating Einstein's equations of general relativity. For many years, this was an impossible task; however, breakthroughs in 2005 and 2006 led to the first evolutions of binary black hole spacetimes through the merger process. Far from being esoteric results interesting only to hardcore relativists, these simulations have turned out to be very important for astrophysics. For example, if the gravitational waves are emitted asymmetrically, conservation of momentum implies that the resulting black hole will experience a recoil or ``kick.'' Numerical studies have shown that in some configurations, the kick can reach values as large as $\sim 5000$ km/s. The simulations also allow the final spins of the black holes to be calculated. In the future, astrophysical information about coalescing MBH binaries will be obtained by directly measuring the gravitational waves with space-based detectors. In this case, the inclusion of accurate merger and ringdown waveforms into the signal model allows for significant improvement in measuring system parameters like mass, spin, and luminosity distance. [Preview Abstract] |
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