Erratum: Modeling the remnant mass, spin, and recoil from unequal-mass, precessing black-hole binaries: The intermediate mass ratio regime [Phys. Rev. D92, 024022 (2015)]

Modeling gravitational recoil from precessing highly-spinning unequal-mass black-hole binaries

On the equal-mass limit of precessing black-hole binaries

We analyze the inspiral dynamics of equal-mass precessing black-hole binaries using multi-timescale techniques. The orbit-averaged post-Newtonian evolutionary equations admit two constants of motion in the equal-mass limit, namely the magnitude of the total spin S and the effective spin ξ. This feature makes the entire dynamics qualitatively different compared to the generic unequal-mass case, ...

Unequal Mass Binary Black Hole Plunges and Gravitational Recoil

We present results from fully nonlinear simulations of unequal mass binary black holes plunging from close separations well inside the innermost stable circular orbit with mass ratios q ≡ M1/M2 = {1, 0.85, 0.78, 0.55, 0.32}, or equivalently, with reduced mass parameters η ≡ M1M2/(M1 +M2) = {0.25, 0.248, 0.246, 0.229, 0.183}. For each case, the initial binary orbital parameters are chosen from t...

Simulations of unequal-mass black hole binaries with spectral methods

This paper presents techniques and results for simulations of unequal-mass, nonspinning binary black holes with pseudospectral methods. Specifically, we develop an efficient root-finding procedure to ensure the black hole initial data have the desired masses and spins; we extend the dual coordinate frame method and eccentricity removal to asymmetric binaries. Furthermore, we describe techniques...

Resonant recoil in extreme mass ratio binary black hole mergers

The inspiral and merger of a binary black hole system generally leads to an asymmetric distribution of emitted radiation, and hence a recoil of the remnant black hole directed opposite to the net linear momentum radiated. The recoil velocity is generally largest for comparable mass black holes and particular spin configurations, and approaches zero in the extreme mass ratio limit. It is general...