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Characteristic extraction in numerical relativity: binary black hole merger waveforms at null infinity

2 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

2 Pith papers citing it
abstract

The accurate modeling of gravitational radiation is a key issue for gravitational wave astronomy. As simulation codes reach higher accuracy, systematic errors inherent in current numerical relativity wave-extraction methods become evident, and may lead to a wrong astrophysical interpretation of the data. In this paper, we give a detailed description of the Cauchy-characteristic extraction technique applied to binary black hole inspiral and merger evolutions to obtain gravitational waveforms that are defined unambiguously, that is, at future null infinity. By this method we remove finite-radius approximations and the need to extrapolate data from the near zone. Further, we demonstrate that the method is free of gauge effects and thus is affected only by numerical error. Various consistency checks reveal that energy and angular momentum are conserved to high precision and agree very well with extrapolated data. In addition, we revisit the computation of the gravitational recoil and find that finite radius extrapolation very well approximates the result at $\scri$. However, the (non-convergent) systematic differences to extrapolated data are of the same order of magnitude as the (convergent) discretisation error of the Cauchy evolution hence highlighting the need for correct wave-extraction.

fields

gr-qc 2

years

2026 2

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 2

representative citing papers

Toward claiming a detection of gravitational memory

gr-qc · 2026-01-30 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

A framework using scale separation in the Isaacson description defines observable gravitational memory rise for compact binary coalescences, providing a basis for hypothesis testing in LISA data.

Constraining Gravitational Wave Memory with Hierarchical Inference

gr-qc · 2026-05-26 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Hierarchical Bayesian inference on GWTC-5.0 constrains the memory enhancement factor to 0.26 with large uncertainties consistent with the GR value of 1 and forecasts that 2000 detections are needed for a 1σ constraint away from zero.

citing papers explorer

Showing 2 of 2 citing papers.

  • Toward claiming a detection of gravitational memory gr-qc · 2026-01-30 · unverdicted · none · ref 127 · internal anchor

    A framework using scale separation in the Isaacson description defines observable gravitational memory rise for compact binary coalescences, providing a basis for hypothesis testing in LISA data.

  • Constraining Gravitational Wave Memory with Hierarchical Inference gr-qc · 2026-05-26 · unverdicted · none · ref 66 · internal anchor

    Hierarchical Bayesian inference on GWTC-5.0 constrains the memory enhancement factor to 0.26 with large uncertainties consistent with the GR value of 1 and forecasts that 2000 detections are needed for a 1σ constraint away from zero.