Some of the most exciting scientific
objectives for
LISA
involve the search for,
and detailed study of,
signals from sources that
contain MBHs (e.g. black
holes with mass greater
than 10^6 solar masses.
The coalescence of MBH-MBH
binaries will be the brightest
events visible to LISA.
While ground-based interferometers
may or may not even see
comparable mass black hole
mergers, for LISA, the
signal-to-noise ratios
for super-massive BBH events
should be quite high, up
to 10^4. In this case the
BBH events may be so strong
and numerous that the ability
to make observations of
other weaker sources depends
on filtering out the BBH
signals according to accurate
model waveforms. Because
the new ground-based interferometers
are already beginning operations
and because model information
may be critical even in
the developmental stages
of the LISA mission, there
is a pressing need to produce
at least moderately accurate
models for BBH coalescence
immediately. Detailed comparison
with numerical simulations
will reveal the masses,
spins and orientations
of the two black holes,
providing crucial information
about the history and formation
of the binary system. It
will also provide an important
precision test of dynamical
nonlinear gravity, predicted
by Einstein's general theory
of relativity. Our research
focus on a newly introduced
a new combined approach
to the binary black hole
modeling problem, which
is dubbed the
Lazarus
Project, a technique
that bridges far and close
limit approximation approaches
with full
numerical
relativity to solve
Einstein equations applied
in the truly nonlinear
dynamical regime. Using
this approach one can in
fact model supermassive
binary black hole systems
and provided the first
approximate theoretical
estimates for the gravitational
radiation waveforms and
energy that are generated
during the coalescence.

In the picture Gravitational
waves (in red) are produced
as two black holes spiral
together and collide in
this computer simulation
(using the so-called Lazarus
approach). Colors in the
picture represent the strength
of the "wave component"
of the gravitational field.
After the collision, the
gravitational waves travel
outward in all directions,
eventually arriving in
our solar system where
they can be measured by
detectors. Another set
of guaranteed sources for
LISA is stellar mass compact
objects (white dwarfs,
neutron stars, black holes)
inspiralling into massive
black holes in galactic
nuclei. In general relativity,
test particles follow geodesics
of the spacetime. Clearly,
solar mass objects spiralling
into massive black holes
cannot be treated as test
particles, but as ``almost''
test particles, perturbed
from their geodesics by
recoil forces from the
gravitational radiation,
i.e. by radiation reaction
(in fact, the particles
motion is also perturbed
by so-called conservative
self-forces which are not
associated with gravitational
radiation, although the
term radiation reaction
is often used to denote
both radiative and conservative
corrections to the particle
motion). One can therefore
use perturbation theory
around a single black hole
to compute gravitational
radiation from such extreme
mass ratio binary systems.
The small mass ratio of
these binary systems provides
the expansion parameter
for the perturbative analysis
of the attendant gravitational
radiation.