An efficient iterative method to reduce eccentricity in numerical-relativity simulations of compact binary inspiral

Autor(en)

Michael Puerrer, Sascha Husa, Mark Hannam

Abstrakt

We present a new iterative method to reduce eccentricity in black-hole-binary simulations. Given a good first estimate of low-eccentricity starting momenta, we evolve puncture initial data for ~4 orbits and construct improved initial parameters by comparing the inspiral with post-Newtonian calculations. Our method is the first to be applied directly to the gravitational-wave (GW) signal, rather than the orbital motion. The GW signal is in general less contaminated by gauge effects, which, in moving-puncture simulations, limit orbital-motion-based measurements of the eccentricity to an uncertainty of ?e~0.002, making it difficult to reduce the eccentricity below this value. Our new method can reach eccentricities below 10-3 in one or two iteration steps; we find that this is well below the requirements for GW astronomy in the advanced detector era. Our method can be readily adapted to any compact-binary simulation with GW emission, including black-hole-binary simulations which use alternative approaches and neutron-star-binary simulations. We also comment on the differences in eccentricity estimates based on the strain h and the Newman-Penrose scalar ?4.

Organisation(en)

Gravitationsphysik

Externe Organisation(en)

University of the Balearic Islands, Cardiff University

Journal

Physical Review D

Band

85

Anzahl der Seiten

26

ISSN

1550-7998

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.85.124051

Publikationsdatum

2012

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103036 Theoretische Physik, 103028 Relativitätstheorie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/6d9ed647-50e5-494f-8d9d-b23fef008bcd