National Center for Computational Sciences

PI: Joan Centrella, National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center

The final stage of massive black hole (MBH) binary evolution is a strong source of gravitational waves for laser-interferometric observatories. A full theoretical understanding of the merger, as predicted by general relativity, is essential for realizing the scientific potential of these observations. Over the past year, dramatic advances have been made in numerical relativity techniques for binary black hole simulations with adaptive mesh refinement, greatly expanding the scope of problems that can be profitably investigated. INCITE resources will be used in this project to apply these techniques to model the astrophysical coalescence of comparable-mass MBH binaries for different mass ratios and spins and calculate the resulting gravitational wave signatures. The objectives of the experiment are to understand the dynamics of comparable-mass binary black hole mergers for astrophysically interesting mass ratios and spins, compute and characterize the resulting gravitational waveforms, and investigate astrophysical applications.