Geometry of a Black Hole Collision

doi:10.1126/science.270.5238.941

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Astronomy

Science 10 November 1995:
Vol. 270. no. 5238, pp. 941 - 947
DOI: 10.1126/science.270.5238.941

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Articles

Geometry of a Black Hole Collision

Richard A. Matzner (1), H. E. Seidel, Stuart L. Shapiro, L. Smarr, W.-M. Suen, Saul A. Teukolsky, J. Winicour

The Binary Black Hole Alliance was formed to study the collision of black holes and the resulting gravitational radiation by computationally solving Einstein's equations for general relativity. The location of the black hole surface in a head-on collision has been determined in detail and is described here. The geometrical features that emerge are presented along with an analysis and explanation in terms of the spacetime curvature inherent in the strongly gravitating black hole region. This curvature plays a direct, important, and analytically explicable role in the formation and evolution of the event horizon associated with the surfaces of the black holes.

R. A. Matzner is professor of physics and director of the Center for Relativity, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA. H. E. Seidel is senior research scientist at the National Center for Super Computing Applications (NCSA) and visiting associate professor of physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. S. L. Shapiro and S. A. Teukolsky are professors of astronomy and physics at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. L. Smarr is director of NCSA and professor of astronomy and physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. W.-M. Suen is associate professor of physics at Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. J. Winicour is professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
(1) To whom correspondence should be addressed.