High-spin binary black hole mergers

Marronetti, Pedro; Tichy, Wolfgang; Brügmann, Bernd; González, José Antonio García-Cruces; Sperhake, Ulrich

doi:10.1103/physrevd.77.064010

Cited by 181 publications

(230 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Equal-mass BBH mergers might lead to higher final spins than expected, rivaling the highest spins (χ ≃ 0.998) allowed by physical accretion flows [20]. Black holes can always be spun up by Square points are simulations from [16]; the purple X is from [17]. Bottom panel: The final spin parameter χ f (ν) for these mergers.…”

Section: Fig 3: Top Panelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can binary mergers produce maximally spinning black holes?

Kesden

2008

Phys. Rev. D

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Gravitational waves carry away both energy and angular momentum as binary black holes inspiral and merge. The relative efficiency with which they are radiated determines whether the final black hole of mass M f and spin S f saturates the Kerr limit (χ f ≡ S f /M 2 f ≤ 1). Extrapolating from the test-particle limit, we propose expressions for S f and M f for mergers with initial spins aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. We predict the the final spin at plunge for equalmass non-spinning binaries to better than 1%, and that equal-mass maximally spinning aligned mergers lead to nearly maximally spinning final black holes (χ f ≃ 0.9988). We also find black holes can always be spun up by aligned mergers provided the mass ratio is small enough.Recent breakthroughs in numerical relativity have led to successful simulations of the inspiral, merger, and ringdown of binary black holes (BBHs) [1,2,3]. Despite this progress, approximations underlying these simulations limit them to mergers with large but submaximal initial spins (χ i 0.9) and order-unity mass ratios (q ≡ m 2 /m 1 ≥ 1/6). Yet the maximally spinning regime is of considerable theoretical and observational interest. Maximally spinning black holes barely manage to hide their singularities within their event horizons, and observable, "naked" singularities are expected for spins χ > 1. While infinitesimal processes like steady accretion cannot produce naked singularities [4], Penrose's cosmic-censorship conjecture [5] that such singularities can never be created has not been proven for comparable-mass BBH mergers. Black-hole spins are not a purely theoretical concern; they can be measured by reverberation mapping of iron Kα fluorescence in the spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGN) [6]. This technique has been applied to XMM-Newton observations of the Seyfert 1.2 galaxy MCG-06-30-15, leading to a measured spin χ = 0.989 +0.009 −0.002 very near the maximal limit [7]. The spins of supermassive black holes (SBHs) also offer important insights into their formation. Some expect that highly spinning SBHs will only be found in gas-rich systems like spirals [8]. Others suggest that gas accretion occurs through a series of chaotically oriented episodes, leading to moderate spins (χ ∼ 0.1−0.3) lower than those expected from comparable-mass mergers in gas-poor ellipticals [9]. Comparing measured spins in spirals and ellipticals will distinguish between these two scenarios.In the absence of reliable simulations of maximally spinning BBH mergers, we must rely on various approximations in this important regime. Hughes and Blandford (hereafter HB) [10] assumed that the energy and angular momentum radiated during the inspiral stage dominates that radiated during the comparatively brief merger and ringdown. They then used conservation of energy and angular momentum to equate these quantities when the BBHs reach their innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) to the mass and spin of the final black hole,Here E(χ) is the energy per unit mass of a test particle...

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Section: Fig 3: Top Panelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can binary mergers produce maximally spinning black holes?

Kesden

2008

Phys. Rev. D

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“…A significant sample of spinning binary BH merger simulations is now available. Different groups showed that when the initial spins are large and aligned with the orbital angular momentum L, the binary ''hangs up,'' radiating more energy and angular momentum (Campanelli et al 2006;Baker et al 2007;Pollney et al 2007;Marronetti et al 2008). Even accounting for the additional angular momentum due to orbital eccentricity, no violation of cosmic censorship should occur; a binary BH merger should always result in the formation of a Kerr BH (Sperhake et al 2007).…”

Section: Final Spin From Binary Merger Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmological Black Hole Spin Evolution by Mergers and Accretion

Berti

Volonteri

2008

Astrophysical Journal

375

412

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Using recent results from numerical relativity simulations of black hole mergers, we revisit previous studies of cosmological black hole spin evolution. We show that mergers are very unlikely to yield large spins, unless alignment of the spins of the merging holes with the orbital angular momentum is very efficient. We analyze the spin evolution in three specific scenarios: (1) spin evolves only through mergers, (2) spin evolves through mergers and prolonged accretion episodes, and (3) spin evolves through mergers and short-lived (chaotic) accretion episodes. We study how different diagnostics can distinguish between these evolutionary scenarios, assessing the discriminating power of gravitational-wave measurements and X-ray spectroscopy. Gravitational radiation can produce three different types of spin measurements, yielding, respectively, the spins of the two black holes in a binary inspiral prior to merger, the spin of the merger remnant (as encoded in the ring-down waves), and the spin of ''single'' black holes during the extreme mass-ratio inspiral (EMRI ) of compact objects. The latter spin population is also accessible to iron-line measurements. We compute and compare the spin distributions relevant for these different observations. If iron-line measurements and gravitational-wave observations of EMRIs only yield dimensionless spins j ¼ J /M 2 > 0:9, then prolonged accretion should be responsible for spin-up, and chaotic accretion scenarios would be very unlikely. If only a fraction of the whole population of low-redshift black holes spins rapidly, spin-alignment during binary mergers (rather than prolonged accretion) could be responsible for spin-ups.

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“…To evolve these initial data, we employ the BSSNOK 3+1 decomposition of Einstein's vacuum equations [43][44][45], with the alternative conformal variable suggested in [46][47][48], constraint-damping terms suggested in [49], and the dissipation terms suggested in [50,51]. Our gauge conditions are the specific 1+log lapse and Gamma-driver shift described in [52], which constitute a variant of the now-standard "moving punctures" approach [4,5].…”

Section: Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mergers of black-hole binaries with aligned spins: Waveform characteristics

et al. 2011

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We conduct a descriptive analysis of the multipolar structure of gravitational-radiation waveforms from equal-mass aligned-spin mergers, following an approach first presented in the complementary context of nonspinning black holes of varying mass ratio [1]. We find that, as with the nonspinning mergers, the dominant waveform mode phases evolve together in lock-step through inspiral and merger, supporting the previous waveform description in terms of an adiabatically rigid rotator driving gravitational-wave emission -an implicit rotating source (IRS). We further apply the latetime merger-ringdown model for the rotational frequency introduced in [1], along with an improved amplitude model appropriate for the dominant (2, ±2) modes. This provides a quantitative description of the merger-ringdown waveforms, and suggests that the major features of these waveforms can be described with reference only to the intrinsic parameters associated with the state of the final black hole formed in the merger. We provide an explicit model for the merger-ringdown radiation, and demonstrate that this model agrees to fitting factors better than 95% with the original numerical waveforms for system masses above ∼ 150M⊙. This model may be directly applicable to gravitational-wave detection of intermediate-mass black hole mergers.

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High-spin binary black hole mergers

Cited by 181 publications

References 42 publications

Can binary mergers produce maximally spinning black holes?

Can binary mergers produce maximally spinning black holes?

Cosmological Black Hole Spin Evolution by Mergers and Accretion

Mergers of black-hole binaries with aligned spins: Waveform characteristics

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