Trapping, Irregular Waveforms, and Efficient Radiation in Ultra-relativistic Black Hole Encounters
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Zhu, Hengrui Pretorius, Frans Stone, James M. |
| author_facet | Zhu, Hengrui Pretorius, Frans Stone, James M. |
| contents | We demonstrate that ultra-relativistic black hole encounters reveal a new regime of the two-body interaction in general relativity. Evolving equal-mass, nonspinning black holes with initial center-of-mass Lorentz factors up to $γ\approx 5.1$ using numerical relativity, we find that the resulting waveforms defy the standard expectation of a post-Newtonian description followed by a smooth transition to a prompt Kerr ringdown. Instead, at nonzero impact parameter, the system can exhibit prolonged, highly irregular emission and significant horizon absorption, even without coalescence. We show these phenomena are driven by transient null trapping and repeated lensing of radiation in the binary interaction region. Furthermore, our simulations indicate that over $65\%$ of the initial ADM energy can be radiated as gravitational waves at $γ\approx 5.1$, which is substantially larger than previously estimated by extrapolating from lower boost data. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26253 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Trapping, Irregular Waveforms, and Efficient Radiation in Ultra-relativistic Black Hole Encounters Zhu, Hengrui Pretorius, Frans Stone, James M. General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena We demonstrate that ultra-relativistic black hole encounters reveal a new regime of the two-body interaction in general relativity. Evolving equal-mass, nonspinning black holes with initial center-of-mass Lorentz factors up to $γ\approx 5.1$ using numerical relativity, we find that the resulting waveforms defy the standard expectation of a post-Newtonian description followed by a smooth transition to a prompt Kerr ringdown. Instead, at nonzero impact parameter, the system can exhibit prolonged, highly irregular emission and significant horizon absorption, even without coalescence. We show these phenomena are driven by transient null trapping and repeated lensing of radiation in the binary interaction region. Furthermore, our simulations indicate that over $65\%$ of the initial ADM energy can be radiated as gravitational waves at $γ\approx 5.1$, which is substantially larger than previously estimated by extrapolating from lower boost data. |
| title | Trapping, Irregular Waveforms, and Efficient Radiation in Ultra-relativistic Black Hole Encounters |
| topic | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26253 |