Numerical binary black hole collisions in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity

Understand

We produce the first numerical relativity binary black hole gravitational waveforms in a higher-curvature theory beyond general relativity.

• In particular, we study head-on collisions of binary black holes in order-reduced dynamical Chern-Simons gravity.
• This is a precursor to producing beyond-general-relativity waveforms for inspiraling binary black hole systems that are useful for gravitational wave detection.
• Head-on collisions are interesting in their own right, however, as they cleanly probe the quasi-normal mode spectrum of the final black hole.