EVOLVING PARTICLE TRAJECTORIES PERTURBATIVELY AROUND ROTATING BLACK HOLES IN THE TIME DOMAIN
Open Access
Author:
Lopez-Aleman, Ramon
Graduate Program:
Physics
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 22, 2001
Committee Members:
Jorge Pullin, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Pablo Laguna, Committee Chair/Co-Chair Lee S Finn, Committee Member Abhay Vasant Ashtekar, Committee Member
Keywords:
perturbation theory black holes Numerical Relativity
Abstract:
Treating the Teukolsky perturbation equation numerically as a 2+1 PDE and smearing the singularities in the particle source term by the use of narrow gaussian distributions we have been able to reproduce earlier results for equatorial circular orbits and radial infall trajectories that were done using the more complex and computationally intensive frequency domain formalism using the Teukolsky or the Sasaki-Nakamura equations.
A time domain prescription for a more general evolution of circular orbits inclined with respect to the equatorial plane of the black hole
simulating the orbital decay past the ISCO and the final plunge into the black hole will be presented. This approach can be extremely useful
when tackling the more realistic problem of a compact star moving on a general orbit around a super-massive black hole under the influence of
radiation reaction forces, since virtually all current prescriptions being considered to treat the radiation reaction forces include time domain "tail-term" integrals over the past of the particle's worldline.
