Eccentric black hole mergers and zoom-whirl behavior from elliptic inspirals to hyperbolic encounters

Understand

We perform a parameter study of non-spinning, equal and unequal mass black hole binaries on generic, eccentric orbits in numerical relativity.

• The linear momentum considered ranges from that of a circular orbit to ten times that value.
• We discuss the different manifestations of zoom-whirl behavior in the hyperbolic and the elliptic regime.
• The hyperbolic data set applies to dynamical capture scenarios (e.g.