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Published June 15, 2008 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

Initial data for black hole–neutron star binaries: A flexible, high-accuracy spectral method

Abstract

We present a new numerical scheme to solve the initial value problem for black hole–neutron star binaries. This method takes advantage of the flexibility and fast convergence of a multidomain spectral representation of the initial data to construct high-accuracy solutions at a relatively low computational cost. We provide convergence tests of the method for both isolated neutron stars and irrotational binaries. In the second case, we show that we can resolve the small inconsistencies that are part of the quasiequilibrium formulation, and that these inconsistencies are significantly smaller than observed in previous works. The possibility of generating a wide variety of initial data is also demonstrated through two new configurations inspired by results from binary black holes. First, we show that choosing a modified Kerr-Schild conformal metric instead of a flat conformal metric allows for the construction of quasiequilibrium binaries with a spinning black hole. Second, we construct binaries in low-eccentricity orbits, which are a better approximation to astrophysical binaries than quasiequilibrium systems.

Additional Information

© 2008 The American Physical Society. (Received 24 April 2008; published 27 June 2008) It is a pleasure to acknowledge useful discussions with Matthew Duez, Eanna Flanagan, Jan Hesthaven, Francois Limousin, Geoffrey Lovelace, Robert Owen, Mark Scheel, and Manuel Tiglio. In particular, we would like to thank Matthew Duez for his help in evolving low-eccentricity binaries, Jan Hesthaven for his contribution to the improvement of the preconditioner in SPELLS, Geoffrey Lovelace for his advice on the construction of spinning black holes, and Robert Owen for the measurement of these spins. This work was supported in part by grants from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation to Caltech and Cornell, and from the Brinson Foundation to Caltech; by NSF Grants No. PHY-0652952, No. DMS-0553677, and No. PHY-0652929, and NASA Grant No. NNG05GG51G at Cornell; and by NSF Grants No. PHY-0601459, No. PHY-0652995 and NASA Grant No. NNG05GG52G at Caltech.

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Published - FOUprd08.pdf

Submitted - 0804.3787.pdf

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August 22, 2023
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