[Seminari] Computer Simulations of Black Holes and Gravitational Waves

[Enric Marco]

Colloquia del departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica


Título: Computer Simulations of Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
Lugar: Seminario del Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica
Fecha y hora: Viernes 19 de Octubre, 12h.
	
Prof. Bernd Brügmann
Relativity Group
Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut (TPI)
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena, Germany


Summary:
One of the great challenges in general relativity is the two body
problem for black hole binaries. Since orbiting black holes emit
gravitational waves that carry away energy and momentum, their orbit
decays. The black holes follow a spiral that eventually leads to the
violent collision and merger of the black holes, during which a large
final burst of gravitational radiation is emitted. The challenge is
to solve the Einstein equations in the highly dynamic and strongly
non-linear regime. We review recent breakthroughs that for the first
time allow computer simulations to model the entire strong-field
merger process. As an application we discuss gravitational radiation
recoil. Since gravitational waves carry momentum, by momentum
conservation the remnant of a black hole merger can move with
significant speed with respect to the original rest frame, possibly
ejecting the merged black holes from the surrounding star formation.