Abstract
Using accurate numerical-relativity simulations of (nonspinning) black-hole binaries with mass ratios , , and , we compute the gauge-invariant relation between the (reduced) binding energy and the (reduced) angular momentum of the system. We show that the relation is an accurate diagnostic of the dynamics of a black-hole binary in a highly relativistic regime. By comparing the numerical-relativity curve with the predictions of several analytic approximation schemes, we find that, while the canonically defined, nonresummed post-Newtonian–expanded relation exhibits large and growing deviations from , the prediction of the effective one body formalism, based purely on known analytical results (without any calibration to numerical relativity), agrees strikingly well with the numerical-relativity results.
- Received 13 October 2011
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.131101
© 2012 American Physical Society