Improved Initial Data for Black-Hole Binaries

Wake Forest University, Winston Salem NC

Investigators

Abstract

This research seeks to construct the initial data for a pair of black holes in an astrophysically realistic close binary system. This data represents the state of the binary system at an instant of time, and is the necessary starting point for determining the evolution of the system. Two new approaches for constructing the initial data will be explored. Both approaches build into the data the idea that the systems are nearly in equilibrium. However, the two approaches differ drastically in how the black holes themselves are treated. The collision of a pair of orbiting black holes is a dramatic event that we hope to detect soon in gravitational wave observatories such as LIGO. Simulations, starting from binary black hole initial data, will provide the theoretical foundation for interpreting much of the data obtained by LIGO. The detection of black holes with LIGO will offer the most direct evidence possible for their existence, and will open up an exciting new window for exploring the universe.