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The inspiral-merger-ringdown (IMR) consistency test checks the consistency of the final mass and final spin of a binary black hole merger remnant, independently inferred via the inspiral and merger-ringdown parts of the waveform. As binaries are expected to be nearly circularized when entering the frequency band of ground-based detectors, tests of general relativity (GR) currently employ quasicircular waveforms. We quantify the effect of residual orbital eccentricity on the IMR consistency test. We find that eccentricity causes a significant systematic bias in the inferred final mass and spin of the remnant black hole at an orbital eccentricity (defined at 10 Hz) of e0≳0.1 in the LIGO band (for a total binary mass in the range 65-200M⊙). For binary black holes observed by Cosmic Explorer (CE), the systematic bias becomes significant for e0≳0.015 (for 200-600M⊙ systems). This eccentricity-induced bias on the final mass and spin leads to an apparent inconsistency in the IMR consistency test, manifesting as a false violation of GR. Hence, eccentric corrections to waveform models are important for constructing a robust test of GR, especially for third-generation detectors. We also estimate the eccentric corrections to the relationship between the inspiral parameters and the final mass and final spin; they are shown to be quite small.
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Numerical-relativity simulations of the quasi-circular inspiral and merger of non-spinning, charged black holes: methods and comparison with approximate approaches
We present fully general relativistic simulations of the quasi-circular inspiral and merger of charged, non-spinning, binary black holes with charge-to-mass ratio λ≤0.3. We discuss the key features that enabled long term and stable evolutions of these binaries. We also present a formalism for computing the angular momentum carried away by electromagnetic waves, and the electromagnetic contribution to black-hole horizon properties. We implement our formalism and present the results for the first time in numerical-relativity simulations. In addition, we compare our full non-linear solutions with existing approximate models for the inspiral and ringdown phases. We show that Newtonian models based on the quadrupole approximation have errors of 20 % - 100 % in key gauge-invariant quantities. On the other hand, for the systems considered, we find that estimates of the remnant black hole spin based on the motion of test particles in Kerr-Newman spacetimes agree with our non-linear calculations to within a few percent. Finally, we discuss the prospects for detecting black hole charge by future gravitational-wave detectors using either the inspiral-merger-ringdown signal or the ringdown signal alone.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1912619
- PAR ID:
- 10276494
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physical review
- ISSN:
- 2470-0010
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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