Numerical Relativity Beyond General Relativity

Citation

Okounkova, Maria (2019) Numerical Relativity Beyond General Relativity. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/WPAT-PS25. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:05102019-160621419

Abstract

Einstein’s theory of general relativity has passed all precision tests to date. At some length scale, however, general relativity (GR) must break down and be reconciled with quantum mechanics in a quantum theory of gravity (a beyond-GR theory). Binary black hole mergers probe the non-linear, highly dynamical regime of gravity, and gravitational waves from these systems may contain signatures of such a theory. In this thesis, we seek to make gravitational wave predictions for binary black hole mergers in a beyond-GR theory. These predictions can then be used to perform model-dependent tests of GR with gravitational wave detections.

We make predictions using numerical relativity, the practice of precisely numerically solving the equations governing spacetime. This allows us to probe the behavior of a binary black hole system through full inspiral, merger, and ringdown. We choose to work in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity (dCS), a higher-curvature beyond-GR effective field theory that couples spacetime curvature to a scalar field, and has motivations in string theory and loop quantum gravity. In order to obtain a well-posed initial value formalism, we perturb this theory around GR. We compute the leading-order behavior of the dCS scalar field in a binary black hole merger, as well as the leading-order dCS correction to the spacetime metric and hence gravitational radiation. We produce the first numerical relativity beyond-GR waveforms in a higher-curvature theory of gravity.

This thesis contains additional results, all of which harness the power of numerical relativity to test GR. We compute black hole shadows in dCS gravity, numerically prove the leading-order stability of rotating black holes in dCS gravity, and lay out a formalism for determining the start time of binary black hole ringdown using information from the strong-field region of a binary black hole simulation.

Thesis Files