RESUMO
Simulating a binary black hole coalescence by solving Einstein's equations is computationally expensive, requiring days to months of supercomputing time. Using reduced order modeling techniques, we construct an accurate surrogate model, which is evaluated in a millisecond to a second, for numerical relativity (NR) waveforms from nonspinning binary black hole coalescences with mass ratios in [1, 10] and durations corresponding to about 15 orbits before merger. We assess the model's uncertainty and show that our modeling strategy predicts NR waveforms not used for the surrogate's training with errors nearly as small as the numerical error of the NR code. Our model includes all spherical-harmonic _{-2}Y_{âm} waveform modes resolved by the NR code up to â=8. We compare our surrogate model to effective one body waveforms from 50M_{â} to 300M_{â} for advanced LIGO detectors and find that the surrogate is always more faithful (by at least an order of magnitude in most cases).
RESUMO
This Letter presents a publicly available catalog of 174 numerical binary black hole simulations following up to 35 orbits. The catalog includes 91 precessing binaries, mass ratios up to 8â¶1, orbital eccentricities from a few percent to 10(-5), black hole spins up to 98% of the theoretical maximum, and radiated energies up to 11.1% of the initial mass. We establish remarkably good agreement with post-Newtonian precession of orbital and spin directions for two new precessing simulations, and we discuss other applications of this catalog. Formidable challenges remain: e.g., precession complicates the connection of numerical and approximate analytical waveforms, and vast regions of the parameter space remain unexplored.
