No Arabic abstract
A numerical-relativity calculation yields in general a solution of the Einstein equations including also a radiative part, which is in practice computed in a region of finite extent. Since gravitational radiation is properly defined only at null infinity and in an appropriate coordinate system, the accurate estimation of the emitted gravitational waves represents an old and non-trivial problem in numerical relativity. A number of methods have been developed over the years to extract the radiative part of the solution from a numerical simulation and these include: quadrupole formulas, gauge-invariant metric perturbations, Weyl scalars, and characteristic extraction. We review and discuss each method, in terms of both its theoretical background as well as its implementation. Finally, we provide a brief comparison of the various methods in terms of their inherent advantages and disadvantages.
We demonstrate that evolutions of three-dimensional, strongly non-linear gravitational waves can be followed in numerical relativity, hence allowing many interesting studies of both fundamental and observational consequences. We study the evolution of time-symmetric, axisymmetric {it and} non-axisymmetric Brill waves, including waves so strong that they collapse to form black holes under their own self-gravity. The critical amplitude for black hole formation is determined. The gravitational waves emitted in the black hole formation process are compared to those emitted in the head-on collision of two Misner black holes.
Gravitational waves are one of the most important diagnostic tools in the analysis of strong-gravity dynamics and have been turned into an observational channel with LIGOs detection of GW150914. Aside from their importance in astrophysics, black holes and compact matter distributions have also assumed a central role in many other branches of physics. These applications often involve spacetimes with $D>4$ dimensions where the calculation of gravitational waves is more involved than in the four dimensional case, but has now become possible thanks to substantial progress in the theoretical study of general relativity in $D>4$. Here, we develop a numerical implementation of the formalism by Godazgar and Reall (Ref.[1]) -- based on projections of the Weyl tensor analogous to the Newman-Penrose scalars -- that allows for the calculation of gravitational waves in higher dimensional spacetimes with rotational symmetry. We apply and test this method in black-hole head-on collisions from rest in $D=6$ spacetime dimensions and find that a fraction $(8.19pm 0.05)times 10^{-4}$ of the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass is radiated away from the system, in excellent agreement with literature results based on the Kodama-Ishibashi perturbation technique. The method presented here complements the perturbative approach by automatically including contributions from all multipoles rather than computing the energy content of individual multipoles.
Wave extraction plays a fundamental role in the binary black hole simulations currently performed in numerical relativity. Having a well defined procedure for wave extraction, which matches simplicity with efficiency, is critical especially when comparing waveforms from different simulations. Recently, progress has been made in defining a general technique which uses Weyl scalars to extract the gravitational wave signal, through the introduction of the {it quasi-Kinnersley tetrad}. This procedure has been used successfully in current numerical simulations; however, it involves complicated calculations. The work in this paper simplifies the procedure by showing that the choice of the {it quasi-Kinnersley tetrad} is reduced to the choice of the time-like vector used to create it. The space-like vectors needed to complete the tetrad are then easily identified, and it is possible to write the expression for the Weyl scalars in the right tetrad, as simple functions of the electric and magnetic parts of the Weyl tensor.
This document proposes data formats to exchange numerical relativity results, in particular gravitational waveforms. The primary goal is to further the interaction between gravitational-wave source modeling groups and the gravitational-wave data-analysis community. We present a simple and extendable format which is applicable to various kinds of gravitational wave sources including binaries of compact objects and systems undergoing gravitational collapse, but is nevertheless sufficiently general to be useful for other purposes.
We present a new expression for the Weyl scalar Psi_4 that can be used in numerical relativity to extract the gravitational wave content of a spacetime. The formula relies upon the identification of transverse tetrads, namely the ones in which Psi_1=Psi_3=0. It is well known that tetrads with this property always exist in a general Petrov type I spacetime. A sub-class of these tetrads naturally converges to the Kinnersley tetrad in the limit of Petrov type D spacetime. However, the transverse condition fixes only four of the six parameters coming from the Lorentz group of transformations applied to tetrads. Here we fix the tetrad completely, in particular by giving the expression for the spin-boost transformation that was still unclear. The value of Psi_4 in this optimal tetrad is given as a function of the two curvature invariants I and J.