The physics of black hole binaries: geodesics, relaxation modes and energy extraction

Understand

Black holes are the simplest macroscopic objects, and provide unique tests of General Relativity.

• They have been compared to the Hydrogen atom in quantum mechanics.
• Here, we establish a few facts about the simplest systems bound by gravity: black hole binaries.
• We provide strong evidence for the existence of `global' photosurfaces surrounding the binary, and of binary quasinormal modes leading to exponential decay of massless fields when the binary spacetime is slightly perturbed.