Hybrid black-hole binary initial data

Abstract

Traditional black-hole (BH) binary puncture initial data is conformally flat. This unphysical assumption is coupled with a lack of radiation signature from the binary's past life. As a result, waveforms extracted from evolutions of this data display an abrupt jump. In Kelly et al (2010, Class. Quantum Grav. 27 114005), a new binary BH initial data with radiation content derived from post-Newtonian (PN) theory was adapted to puncture evolutions in numerical relativity. This data satisfies the constraint equations to the 2.5PN order, and contains a transverse-traceless ‘wavy’ metric contribution, violating the standard assumption of conformal flatness. Although the evolution contained less spurious radiation, there were undesirable features: unphysical horizon mass loss and large initial orbital eccentricity. Introducing a hybrid approach to the initial data evaluation, we significantly reduce these undesired features.