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Abstract We demonstrate the flexibility and utility of the Berger–Rigoutsos adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) algorithm used in the open-source numerical relativity (NR) code GRC hombo for generating gravitational waveforms from binary black-hole (BH) inspirals, and for studying other problems involving non-trivial matter configurations. We show that GRC hombo can produce high quality binary BH waveforms through a code comparison with the established NR code L ean . We also discuss some of the technical challenges involved in making use of full AMR (as opposed to, e.g. moving box mesh refinement), including the numerical effects caused by using various refinement criteria when regridding. We suggest several ‘rules of thumb’ for when to use different tagging criteria for simulating a variety of physical phenomena. We demonstrate the use of these different criteria through example evolutions of a scalar field theory. Finally, we also review the current status and general capabilities of GRC hombo . 

Abstract We construct, for the first time, the time-domain gravitational wave strain waveform from the collapse of a strongly gravitating Abelian Higgs cosmic string loop in full general relativity. We show that the strain exhibits a large memory effect during merger, ending with a burst and the characteristic ringdown as a black hole is formed. Furthermore, we investigate the waveform and energy emitted as a function of string width, loop radius and string tensionGμ. We find that the mass normalized gravitational wave energy displays a strong dependence on the inverse of the string tensionE_GW/M₀∝ 1/Gμ, with $E_{\text{GW}}/M_0\sim \mathcal{O}\left(1\right)\%$at the percent level, for the regime whereGμ≳ 10⁻³. Conversely, we show that the efficiency is only weakly dependent on the initial string width and initial loop radii. Using these results, we argue that gravitational wave production is dominated by kinematical instead of geometrical considerations.