Superkicks in ultrarelativistic encounters of spinning black holes
Abstract
We study ultrarelativistic encounters of two spinning, equal-mass black holes through simulations in full numerical relativity. Two initial data sequences are studied in detail: one that leads to scattering and one that leads to a grazing collision and merger. In all cases, the initial black hole spins lie in the orbital plane, a configuration that leads to the so-called superkicks. In astrophysical, quasicircular inspirals, such kicks can be as large as ~ 3000 km/s; here, we find configurations that exceed ~ 15000 km/s. We find that the maximum recoil is to a good approximation proportional to the total amount of energy radiated in gravitational waves, but largely independent of whether a merger occurs or not. This shows that the mechanism predominantly responsible for the superkick is not related to merger dynamics. Rather, a consistent explanation is that the "bobbing" motion of the orbit causes an asymmetric beaming of the radiation produced by the in-plane orbital motion of the binary, and the net asymmetry is balanced by a recoil. We use our results to formulate some conjectures on the ultimate kick achievable in any black hole encounter.
Additional Information
© 2011 American Physical Society. Received 22 November 2010; published 28 January 2011. We thank Pablo Laguna for useful discussions. U. S. acknowledges support from the Ramón y Cajal Programme of the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain, NSF Grants No. PHY-0601459, PHY-0652995, and the Fairchild Foundation to Caltech. E.B.'s research was supported by NSF Grant No. PHY-0900735. V.C. is supported by a "Ciência 2007" research contract. F. P. and N.Y. acknowledge support from NSF Grant No. PHY-0745779, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (F. P.). This work was partially supported by the DyBHo-256667 ERC Starting Grant, by FCT-Portugal through Projects No. PTDC/FIS/098025/2008, PTDC/FIS/098032/2008, PTDC/CTE-AST/098034/2008, CERN/FP/109306/2009, CERN/FP/109290/2009, loni_numrel05, an allocation through the TeraGrid Advanced Support Program under Grant No. PHY-090003 on NICS' kraken cluster and the Centro de Supercomputacion de Galicia (CESGA, Project No. ICTS-2009-40). Computations were partially performed on the Woodhen Cluster at Princeton University. N.Y. acknowledges support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Number PF0-110080 issued by the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of the National Aeronautics Space Administration under Contract No. NAS8-03060. The authors thankfully acknowledge the computer resources, technical expertise, and assistance provided by the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Centro Nacional de Supercomputación.Attached Files
Published - Sperhake2011p12693Phys_Rev_D.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 22616
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110302-132412042
- Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia (MEC)
- PHY-0601459
- NSF
- PHY-0652995
- NSF
- PHY-0900735
- NSF
- PHY-0745779
- NSF
- Sherman Fairchild Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- DyBHo-256667
- European Research Council (ERC)
- PTDC/FIS/098025/2008
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
- PTDC/FIS/098032/2008
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
- PTDC/CTE-AST/098034/2008
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
- CERN/FP/109306/2009
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
- CERN/FP/109290/2009
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
- loni_numrel05
- Louisiana Optical Network Initiative
- PHY-090003
- NSF
- ICTS-2009-40
- Centro de Supercomputacion de Galicia (CESGA)
- PF0-110080
- NASA
- NAS8-03060
- NASA
- Created
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2011-03-03Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field