Béla Szilágyi et al 2007 Class. Quantum Grav. 24 S275 doi:10.1088/0264-9381/24/12/S18
Béla Szilágyi1, Denis Pollney1, Luciano Rezzolla1,2, Jonathan Thornburg1 and Jeffrey Winicour1,3
Show affiliationsWe describe an explicit in time, finite-difference code designed to simulate black holes by using the excision method. The code is based upon the harmonic formulation of the Einstein equations and incorporates several features regarding the well-posedness and numerical stability of the initial-boundary problem for the quasilinear wave equation. After a discussion of the equations solved and of the techniques employed, we present a series of testbeds carried out to validate the code. Such tests range from the evolution of isolated black holes to the head-on collision of two black holes and then to a binary black hole inspiral and merger. Besides assessing the accuracy of the code, the inspiral and merger test has revealed that the marginally trapped surfaces contained within the common apparent horizon of the merged black hole can touch and even intersect. This novel feature in the dynamics of the marginally trapped surfaces is unexpected but consistent with theorems on the properties of these surfaces.
04.70.-s Physics of black holes
65M12 Stability and convergence of numerical methods
83C05 Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems)
Issue 12 (21 June 2007)
Received 22 December 2006, in final form 22 March 2007
Published 4 June 2007
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