Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes?

Details Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes? Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes?

2007-01-05

arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0701038v2

Class.Quant.Grav.24:3911-3918,2007

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

4 pages, 3 eps color figures; v2 = major revisions to introduction & conclusions based on referee comments, but no change in a

Scientific paper

10.1088/0264-9381/24/15/009

When simulating the inspiral and coalescence of a binary black-hole system, special care needs to be taken in handling the singularities. Two main techniques are used in numerical-relativity simulations: A first and more traditional one ``excises'' a spatial neighbourhood of the singularity from the numerical grid on each spacelike hypersurface. A second and more recent one, instead, begins with a ``puncture'' solution and then evolves the full 3-metric, including the singular point. In the continuum limit, excision is justified by the light-cone structure of the Einstein equations and, in practice, can give accurate numerical solutions when suitable discretizations are used. However, because the field variables are non-differentiable at the puncture, there is no proof that the moving-punctures technique is correct, particularly in the discrete case. To investigate this question we use both techniques to evolve a binary system of equal-mass non-spinning black holes. We compare the evolution of two curvature 4-scalars with proper time along the invariantly-defined worldline midway between the two black holes, using Richardson extrapolation to reduce the influence of finite-difference truncation errors. We find that the excision and moving-punctures evolutions produce the same invariants along that worldline, and thus the same spacetimes throughout that worldline's causal past. This provides convincing evidence that moving-punctures are indeed equivalent to moving black holes.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Are moving punctures equivalent to moving black holes? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-16151