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arxiv: 1003.0873 · v2 · submitted 2010-03-03 · 🌀 gr-qc · astro-ph.HE· hep-th

Understanding the "anti-kick" in the merger of binary black holes

Luciano Rezzolla , Rodrigo P. Macedo , Jos\'e Luis Jaramillo This is my paper
classification 🌀 gr-qc astro-ph.HEhep-th
keywords blackholesmergerantikickbinaryrecoilspacetimesunderstanding
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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.

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