Paper detail

Degeneracy measures for the algebraic classification of numerical spacetimes

We study the issue of algebraic classification of the Weyl curvature tensor, with a particular focus on numerical relativity simulations. The spacetimes of interest in this context, binary black hole mergers, and the ringdowns that follow them, present subtleties in that they are generically, strictly speaking, Type I, but in many regions approximately, in some sense, Type D. To provide meaning to any claims of "approximate" Petrov class, one must define a measure of degeneracy on the space of null rays at a point. We will investigate such a measure, used recently to argue that certain binary black hole merger simulations ring down to the Kerr geometry, after hanging up for some time in Petrov Type II. In particular, we argue that this hangup in Petrov Type II is an artefact of the particular measure being used, and that a geometrically better-motivated measure shows a black hole merger produced by our group settling directly to Petrov Type D.