학술논문

Understanding the 'anti-kick' in the merger of binary black holes
Document Type
Working Paper
Source
Phys.Rev.Lett.104:221101,2010
Subject
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Theory
Language
Abstract
The generation of a large recoil velocity from the inspiral and merger of binary black holes represents one of the most exciting results of numerical-relativity calculations. While many aspects of this process have been investigated and explained, the "antikick", namely the sudden deceleration after the merger, has not yet found a simple explanation. We show that the antikick can be understood in terms of the radiation from a deformed black hole where the anisotropic curvature distribution on the horizon correlates with the direction and intensity of the recoil. Our analysis is focussed on Robinson-Trautman spacetimes and allows us to measure both the energies and momenta radiated in a gauge-invariant manner. At the same time, this simpler setup provides the qualitative and quantitative features of merging black holes, opening the way to a deeper understanding of the nonlinear dynamics of black-hole spacetimes.
Comment: 4 pages; small changes to match the published version