Plunge Waveforms from Inspiralling Binary Black Holes
Published in Physical Review Letters 87, 121103
(Friday, August 31, 2001)
Abstract
We study the coalescence of nonspinning binary black holes from near the innermost stable circular orbit down to the final single rotating black hole. We use a technique that combines the full numerical approach to solve the Einstein equations, applied in the truly nonlinear regime, and linearized perturbation theory around the final distorted single black hole at later times. We compute the plunge waveforms, which present a non-negligible signal lasting for t∼100M showing early nonlinear ringing, and we obtain estimates for the total gravitational energy and angular momentum radiated.
