Accurate evolution of orbiting binary black holes

Peter Diener, Louisiana State University
Frank Herrmann, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Denis Pollney, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Erik Schnetter, Louisiana State University
Edward Seidel, Louisiana State University
Ryoji Takahashi, Louisiana State University
Jonathan Thornburg, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Jason Ventrellai, Louisiana State University

Abstract

We present a detailed analysis of binary black hole evolutions in the last orbit, and demonstrate consistent and convergent results for the trajectories of the individual bodies. The gauge choice can significantly affect the overall accuracy of the evolution. It is possible to reconcile certain gauge dependent discrepancies by examining the convergence limit. We illustrate these results using an initial data set recently evolved by Briigmann et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 211101). For our highest resolution and most accurate gauge, we estimate the duration of this data set's last orbit to be approximately 59A/ADM.