Numerical simulation of binary black hole spacetimes and a novel approach to outer boundary conditions [Elektronische Ressource] / Jennifer Seiler

Numerical Simulation of Binary Black Hole Spacetimes and aNovel Approach to Outer Boundary ConditionsVon der Fakultät für Mathematik und Physikder Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannoverzur Erlangung des GradesDoktorin der Naturwissenschaften– Dr. rer. nat. –genehmigte DissertationvonJennifer Seilergeboren am 5. Mai, 1983 in Washington, DC, USA• 2010Referent: Prof. Bernard Schutz, Institut für GravitationsphysikKoreferent: Prof. Jeffrey Winicour, University of PittsburghTag der Promotion: 5. Februar, 20102Dedicated to Thomas Radke.He had a rare combination of brilliance, character, and humility. Both thescientific community and society are handicapped by his loss.34AbstractWith ground-based gravitational wave detectors at design sensitivity, and a space-based detector in planning stages, the need for accurate gravitational wave templates forsignal recognition by detector pipelines has become an urgent problem. With that in mind,and the fact that binary black hole inspirals and mergers are the strongest potential sourcefor gravitational wave signals for online detectors, my research has focused on improvingthe accuracy and well-posedness of numerical simulations, and on the generation of grav-itational waveforms from numerical simulations both for detector template generation andfor astrophysical predictions.