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Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 131101 (2009) [4 pages]

Zoom-Whirl Orbits in Black Hole Binaries

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James Healy1, Janna Levin2,3, and Deirdre Shoemaker4
1Center for Gravitational Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Barnard College of Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, New York 10027, USA
3Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
4Center for Relativistic Astrophysics and School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA

Received 7 July 2009; published 22 September 2009

Zoom-whirl behavior has the reputation of being a rare phenomenon. The concern has been that gravitational radiation would drain angular momentum so rapidly that generic orbits would circularize before zoom-whirl behavior could play out, and only rare highly tuned orbits would retain their imprint. Using full numerical relativity, we catch zoom-whirl behavior despite dissipation. The larger the mass ratio, the longer the pair can spend in orbit before merging and therefore the more zooms and whirls seen. Larger spins also enhance zoom whirliness. An important implication is that these eccentric orbits can merge during a whirl phase, before enough angular momentum has been lost to truly circularize the orbit. Waveforms will be modulated by the harmonics of zoom-whirls, showing quiet phases during zooms and louder glitches during whirls.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.131101
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.131101
PACS:
04.25.dg, 04.25.Nx, 04.30.−w, 04.70.Bw

See Also

See Also: Ulrich Sperhake, Vitor Cardoso, Frans Pretorius, Emanuele Berti, Tanja Hinderer, and Nicolas Yunes, Cross Section, Final Spin, and Zoom-Whirl Behavior in High-Energy Black-Hole Collisions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 131102 (2009).

 
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