Black Hole Initial Data Research Articles

Asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein constraint equations with apparent horizon boundary and the Penrose inequality for perturbations of Schwarzschild-AdS *

We prove the existence of asymptotically hyperbolic solutions to the vacuum Einstein constraint equations with a marginally outer trapped boundary of positive mean curvature, using the constant mean curvature conformal method. As an application of this result, we verify the Penrose inequality for certain perturbations of Schwarzschild Anti-de Sitter black hole initial data.

Can We Prescribe the Physical Parameters of Multiple Black Holes?

The parabolic-hyperbolic form of the constraints and superposed Kerr-Schild black holes have already been used to provide a radically new initialization of binary black hole configurations. The method generalizes straightforwardly to multiple black hole systems. This paper is to verify that each of the global Arnowitt-Deser-Misner quantities of the constructed multiple black hole initial data can always be prescribed, as desired, in advance of solving the constraints. These global charges are shown to be uniquely determined by the physical parameters of the involved individual Kerr-Schild black holes.

Nonlinear dynamics of quadratic gravity in spherical symmetry

We present the first numerically stable nonlinear evolution for the leading-order gravitational effective field theory (Quadratic Gravity) in the spherically-symmetric sector. The formulation relies on (i) harmonic gauge to cast the evolution system into quasi-linear form (ii) the Cartoon method to reduce to spherical symmetry in keeping with harmonic gauge, and (iii) order-reduction to 1st-order (in time) by means of introducing auxiliary variables. Well-posedness of the respective initial-value problem is numerically confirmed by evolving randomly perturbed flat-space and black-hole initial data. Our study serves as a proof-of-principle for the possibility of stable numerical evolution in the presence of higher derivatives.

Black hole initial data by numerical integration of the parabolic–hyperbolic form of the constraints

The parabolic–hyperbolic form of the constraints is integrated numerically. The applied numerical stencil is fourth-order accurate (in the spatial directions) while “time”-integration is made by using the method of lines with a fourth-order order accurate Runge–Kutta scheme. The proper implementation of the applied numerical method is verified by convergence tests and monitoring the relative and absolute errors is determined by comparing numerically and analytically known solutions of the constraints involving boosted and spinning vacuum single black hole configurations. The main part of our investigations is, however, centered on the construction of initial data for distorted black holes which, in certain cases, have non-negligible gravitational wave content. Remarkably, the applied new method is unprecedented in that it allows to construct initial data for highly boosted and spinning black holes, essentially for the full physical allowed ranges of these parameters. In addition, the use of the evolutionary form of the constraints is free from applying any sort of boundary conditions in the strong field regime.

Numerical construction of initial data sets of binary black hole type using a parabolic-hyperbolic formulation of the vacuum constraint equations

In this paper we investigate the parabolic-hyperbolic formulation of the vacuum constraint equations introduced by Rácz with a view to constructing multiple black hole initial data sets without spin. In order to respect the natural properties of this configuration, we foliate the spatial domain with two-spheres. It is then a consequence of these equations that they must be solved as an initial value problem evolving outwards towards spacelike infinity. Choosing the free data and the ‘strong field boundary conditions’ for these equations in a way which mimics asymptotically flat and asymptotically spherical binary black hole initial data sets, our focus in this paper is on the analysis of the asymptotics of the solutions. In agreement with our earlier results, our combination of analytical and numerical tools reveals that these solutions are in general not asymptotically flat, but have a cone geometry instead. In order to remedy this and approximate asymptotically Euclidean data sets, we then propose and test an iterative numerical scheme.

Holographic CFT states for localized perturbations to AdS black holes

In this note, we describe a holographic CFT construction of states dual to scalar perturbations of the maximally extended three-dimensional AdS-Schwarzschild black hole. The states are constructed by adding sources for a scalar operator to the path integral that constructs the thermofield double state. For a scalar field of arbitrary mass, we provide the general map between sources and scalar field perturbations at linear order. With this, we investigate to what extent it is possible using this construction to produce perturbations localized to one side of the black hole horizon. Our results suggest that it is possible to produce arbitrarily localized perturbations (and thus, plausibly, general linear perturbations to the black hole initial data slice), but that the amplitude of the perturbation must be taken small as the perturbation becomes more localized in order that the sources do not diverge, as found for the pure AdS case considered in arXiv:1709.10101.

Construction of high precision numerical single and binary black hole initial data

We present a novel implicit numerical implementation of the parabolic-hyperbolic formulation of the constraints of general relativity. The proposed method is unconditionally stable, has the advantage of not requiring the imposition of any boundary conditions in the strong field regime, and offers a holistic (all inclusive) approach to the construction of single and binary black hole initial data. The new implicit solver is extensively tested against known exact black hole solutions and is used to construct initial data for several single and binary black hole configurations.

Existence and stability of marginally trapped surfaces in black-hole spacetimes

Marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs, or marginal surfaces in short) are routinely used in numerical simulations of black hole spacetimes. They are an invaluable tool for locating and characterizing black holes quasi-locally in real time while the simulation is ongoing. It is often believed that a MOTS can behave unpredictably under time evolution; an existing MOTS can disappear, and a new one can appear without any apparent reason. In this paper we show that in fact the behavior of a MOTS is perfectly predictable and its behavior is dictated by a single real parameter, the \emph{stability parameter}, which can be monitored during the course of a numerical simulation. We demonstrate the utility of the stability parameter to fully understand the variety of marginal surfaces that can be present in binary black hole initial data. We also develop a new horizon finder capable of locating very highly distorted marginal surfaces and we show that even in these cases, the stability parameter perfectly predicts the existence and stability of marginal surfaces.

Numerical black hole initial data and shadows in dynamical Chern–Simons gravity

We present a scheme for generating first-order metric perturbation initial data for an arbitrary background and source. We then apply this scheme to derive metric perturbations in order-reduced dynamical Chern–Simons gravity (dCS). In particular, we solve for metric perturbations on a black hole background that are sourced by a first-order dCS scalar field. This gives us the leading-order metric perturbation to the spacetime in dCS gravity. We then use these solutions to compute black hole shadows in the linearly perturbed spacetime by evolving null geodesics. We present a novel scheme to decompose the shape of the shadow into multipoles parametrized by the spin of the background black hole and the perturbation parameter . We find that we can differentiate the presence of a pure Kerr spacetime from a spacetime with a dCS perturbation using the shadow, allowing in part for a null-hypothesis test of general relativity. We then consider these results in the context of the event horizon telescope.

A Simple Method of Constructing Binary Black Hole Initial Data

By applying a parabolic-hyperbolic formulation of the constraints and superposing Kerr-Schild black holes, a simple method is introduced to initialize time evolution of binary systems. As the input parameters are essentially the same as those used in the post-Newtonian (PN) setup the proposed method interrelates various physical expressions applied in PN and in fully relativistic formulations. The global ADM charges are also determined by the input parameters, and no use of boundary conditions in the strong field regime is made.

Comparison of binary black hole initial data sets

We present improvements to construction of binary black hole initial data used in SpEC (the Spectral Einstein Code). We introduce new boundary conditions for the extended conformal thin sandwich elliptic equations that enforce the excision surfaces to be slightly inside rather than on the apparent horizons, thus avoiding extrapolation into the black holes at the last stage of initial data construction. We find that this improves initial data constraint violations near and inside the apparent horizons by about 3 orders of magnitude. We construct several initial data sets that are intended to be astrophysically equivalent but use different free data, boundary conditions, and initial gauge conditions. These include free data chosen as a superposition of two black holes in time-independent horizon-penetrating harmonic and damped harmonic coordinates. We also implement initial data for which the initial gauge satisfies the harmonic and damped harmonic gauge conditions; this can be done independently of the free data, since this amounts to a choice of the time derivatives of the lapse and shift. We compare these initial data sets by evolving them. We show that the gravitational waveforms extracted during the evolution of these different initial data sets agree very well after excluding initial transients. However, we do find small differences between these waveforms, which we attribute to small differences in initial orbital eccentricity, and in initial BH masses and spins, resulting from the different choices of free data. Among the cases considered, we find that superposed harmonic initial data leads to significantly smaller transients, smaller variation in BH spins and masses during these transients, smaller constraint violations, and more computationally efficient evolutions. Finally, we study the impact of initial data choices on the construction of zero-eccentricity initial data.

Constructing a boosted, spinning black hole in the damped harmonic gauge

The damped harmonic gauge is important for numerical relativity computations based on the generalized harmonic formulation of Einstein's equations, and is used to reduce coordinate distortions near binary black hole mergers. However, currently there is no prescription to construct quasiequilibrium binary black hole initial data in this gauge. Instead, initial data are typically constructed using a superposition of two boosted analytic single black hole solutions as free data in the solution of the constraint equations. Then, a smooth time-dependent gauge transformation is done early in the evolution to move into the damped harmonic gauge. Using this strategy to produce initial data in damped harmonic gauge would require the solution of a single black hole in this gauge, which is not known analytically. In this work we construct a single boosted, spinning, equilibrium BH in damped harmonic coordinates as a regular time-independent coordinate transformation from Kerr-Schild coordinates. To do this, we derive and solve a set of 4 coupled, nonlinear, elliptic equations for this transformation, with appropriate boundary conditions. This solution can now be used in the construction of damped harmonic initial data for binary black holes.

Quantum evolution of black hole initial data sets: Foundations

We construct a formalism for evolving spherically symmetric black hole initial data sets within a canonical approach to quantum gravity. This problem can be formulated precisely in quantum reduced loop gravity, a framework which has been successfully applied to give a full theory derivation of loop quantum cosmology. We extend this setting by implementing a particular choice of partial gauge which is then used to select a kinematical Hilbert space where the symmetry reduction is imposed through semiclassical states. The main result of this investigation is an effective Hamiltonian that can be used to solve for quantum black hole geometries by evolving classical black hole initial data sets.

Higher dimensional black hole initial data with prescribed boundary metric

We obtain higher dimensional analogues of the results of Mantoulidis and Schoen in [8]. More precisely, we show that (i) any metric $g$ with positive scalar curvature on the $3$-sphere $S^3$ can be realized as the induced metric on the outermost apparent horizon of a $4$-dimensional asymptotically flat manifold with non-negative scalar curvature, whose ADM mass can be arranged to be arbitrarily close to the optimal value specified by the Riemannian Penrose inequality; (ii) any metric $g$ with positive scalar curvature on the $n$-sphere $S^n$, with $ n \ge 4 $, such that $(S^n, g)$ isometrically embeds into $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ as a star-shaped hypersurface, can be realized as the induced metric on the outermost apparent horizon of an $(n+1)$-dimensional asymptotically flat manifold with non-negative scalar curvature, whose ADM mass can be made to be arbitrarily close to the optimal value.

Puncture black hole initial data: A single domain Galerkin-collocation method for trumpet and wormhole data sets

We present a single domain Galerkin-Collocation method to calculate puncture initial data sets for single and binary, either in the trumpet or wormhole geometries. The combination of aspects belonging to the Galerkin and the Collocation methods together with the adoption of spherical coordinates in all cases show to be very effective. We have proposed a unified expression for the conformal factor to describe trumpet and spinning black holes. In particular, for the spinning trumpet black holes, we have exhibited the deformation of the limit surface due to the spin from a sphere to an oblate spheroid. We have also revisited the energy content in the trumpet and wormhole puncture data sets. The algorithm can be extended to describe binary black holes.

Relating Mass to Angular Momentum and Charge in Five-Dimensional Minimal Supergravity

We prove a mass-angular momentum-charge inequality for a broad class of maximal, asymptotically flat, bi-axisymmetric initial data within the context of five-dimensional minimal supergravity. We further show that the charged Myers-Perry black hole initial data are the unique minimizers. In addition, we establish a rigidity statement for the relevant BPS bound, and give a variational characterization of BMPV black holes.

Improvements to the construction of binary black hole initial data

Construction of binary black hole initial data is a prerequisite for numerical evolutions of binary black holes. This paper reports improvements to the binary black hole initial data solver in the spectral Einstein code, to allow robust construction of initial data for mass-ratio above 10:1, and for dimensionless black hole spins above 0.9, while improving efficiency for lower mass-ratios and spins. We implement a more flexible domain decomposition, adaptive mesh refinement and an updated method for choosing free parameters. We also introduce a new method to control and eliminate residual linear momentum in initial data for precessing systems, and demonstrate that it eliminates gravitational mode mixing during the evolution. Finally, the new code is applied to construct initial data for hyperbolic scattering and for binaries with very small separation.

Stability and binding energy of small asymptotically Randall-Sundrum black holes

We study the binding of a small black hole to a positive-tension brane in the second Randall-Sundrum scenario (RS2) with orbifold symmetry. We find that a small black hole on the brane has substantial gravitational binding energy to the brane, and is stable against escaping into the bulk. This result can be applied in other models with an orbifold-symmetric brane. We also find a novel static black hole, which is completely localized off the brane and is unstable against translations transverse to the brane. Our results are obtained analytically by applying a variational principle to black hole initial data. This paper is the second in a series on asymptotically RS black holes.

Black hole initial data without elliptic equations

We explore whether a new method to solve the constraints of Einstein's equations can be applied to provide initial data for black holes. We show that this method, which does not involve elliptic equations, can be successfully applied to a nonlinear perturbation of a Schwarzschild black hole by establishing the well-posedness of the resulting constraint problem. We discuss its possible generalization to the boosted, spinning multiple black hole problem.

Unconstrained hyperboloidal evolution of black holes in spherical symmetry with GBSSN and Z4c

We consider unconstrained evolution schemes for the hyperboloidal initial value problem in numerical relativity as a promising candidate for the optimally efficient numerical treatment of radiating compact objects. Here, spherical symmetry already poses nontrivial problems and constitutes an important first step to regularize the resulting singular PDEs. We evolve the Einstein equations in their generalized BSSN and Z4 formulations coupled to a massless self-gravitating scalar field. Stable numerical evolutions are achieved for black hole initial data, and critically rely on the construction of appropriate gauge conditions.