Abstract
We perform a sequence of binary black hole simulations with increasingly small mass ratios, reaching to a binary that displays 13 orbits before merger. Based on a detailed convergence study of the nonspinning case, we apply additional mesh refinement levels around the smaller hole horizon [30] to reach successively the , , and cases. Roughly a linear computational resources scaling with is observed on eight-nodes simulations. We compute the remnant properties of the merger: final mass, spin, and recoil velocity, finding precise consistency between horizon and radiation measures. We also compute the gravitational waveforms: their peak frequency, amplitude, and luminosity. We compare those values with predictions of the corresponding phenomenological formulas, reproducing the particle limit within 2%, and we then use the new results to improve their fitting coefficients.
- Received 8 June 2020
- Revised 30 July 2020
- Accepted 11 September 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.191102
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