Anomalies in the gravitational recoil of eccentric black-hole mergers with unequal mass ratios

Miren Radia, Ulrich Sperhake, Emanuele Berti, and Robin Croft
Phys. Rev. D 103, 104006 – Published 6 May 2021

Abstract

The radiation of linear momentum imparts a recoil (or “kick”) to the center of mass of a merging black-hole binary system. Recent numerical relativity calculations have shown that eccentricity can lead to an approximate 25% increase in recoil velocities for equal-mass, spinning binaries with spins lying in the orbital plane (“superkick” configurations) [U. Sperhake et al. Phys. Rev. D 101, 024044 (2020)]. Here we investigate the impact of nonzero eccentricity on the kick magnitude and gravitational-wave emission of nonspinning, unequal-mass black hole binaries. We confirm that nonzero eccentricities at merger can lead to kicks which are larger by up to 25% relative to the quasicircular case. We also find that the kick velocity v has an oscillatory dependence on eccentricity, which we interpret as a consequence of changes in the angle between the infall direction at merger and the apoapsis (or periapsis) direction.

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  • Received 28 January 2021
  • Accepted 18 March 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.103.104006

© 2021 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Miren Radia1,*, Ulrich Sperhake1,2,†, Emanuele Berti3,‡, and Robin Croft1

  • 1Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom
  • 2California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA

  • *m.r.radia@damtp.cam.ac.uk
  • u.sperhake@damtp.cam.ac.uk
  • berti@jhu.edu

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Issue

Vol. 103, Iss. 10 — 15 May 2021

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