Last Modified: 2002 October 21
Charlie Torres / charlie@phys.utb.edu
The Lazarus Project: Plunge waveforms from inspiralling binary black holes
Drs. Manuela Campanelli and Carlos Lousto,, Albert Einstein Institiute, Germany
We study the coalescence of binary black holes from the innermost stable circular orbit down to the final single rotating black hole. We use a technique that combines the full numerical approach to solve Einstein equations, applied in the truly nonlinear regime, and linearized per-turbation theory around the final distorted single black hole at later times. We thus produce an estimate for the plunge radiation with a non negligible signal lasting for over t~100M, and we obtain estimates of the total gravitational energy radiated during this process, plunging time, and waveforms suggesting early nonlinear ringing.