WFU Physics Colloquium

TITLE: Analyzing and Improving Initial Data for Binary Black Holes

SPEAKER: Jason D. Grigsby ,

TIME: Tuesday June 30, 2009 at 3:00 PM

PLACE: Room 101 in Olin Physical Laboratory

The study of numerical relativity (NR) will be key to the eventual detection and interpretation of gravitational waves emitted by compact binary systems. NR divides the problem of solving Einstein's field equations into two parts: one specifying a set of initial data and the other evolving that initial data forward in time. The specification of initial data primarily determines the physics of a simulation in numerical relativity thus it is important the initial data accurately models astrophysical scenarios. I will present my own efforts over the last several years to analyze and improve initial data for binary black holes - a likely candidate for a source of detectable gravitational waves. This will include tests of methods designed to predict initial data for binaries in quasicircular orbits, measures of eccentricity in binaries in initial data and work to eliminate a key source of error in numerical initial data - the assumption of conformal flatness.