Inside the Final Black Hole: Puncture and Trapped Surface Dynamics

Understand

A popular approach in numerical simulations of black hole binaries is to model black holes as punctures in the fabric of spacetime.

• The location and the properties of the black hole punctures are tracked with apparent horizons, namely outermost marginally outer trapped surfaces (MOTSs).
• As the holes approach each other, a common apparent horizon suddenly appears, engulfing the two black holes and signaling the merger.
• The evolution of common apparent horizons and their connection with gravitational wave emission have been studied in detail with the framework of dynamical horizons.