Catalog of 174 binary black hole simulations for gravitational wave astronomy.

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 8∶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.

Periastron advance in black-hole binaries.

The general relativistic (Mercury-type) periastron advance is calculated here for the first time with exquisite precision in full general relativity. We use accurate numerical relativity simulations of spinless black-hole binaries with mass ratios 1/8≤m(1)/m(2)≤1 and compare with the predictions of several analytic approximation schemes. We find the effective-one-body model to be remarkably accurate and, surprisingly, so also the predictions of self-force theory [replacing m(1)/m(2)→m(1)m(2)/(m(1)+m(2))(2)]. Our results can inform a universal analytic model of the two-body dynamics, crucial for ongoing and future gravitational-wave searches.