Catalog of 174 binary black hole simulations for gravitational wave astronomy

Abstract

This Letter presents a publicly available catalog of 174 numerical binary black hole simulations following up to 35 orbits. The catalog includes 91 precessing binaries, mass ratios up to 8∶1, orbital eccentricities from a few percent to $10^{−5}$, black hole spins up to 98% of the theoretical maximum, and radiated energies up to 11.1% of the initial mass. We establish remarkably good agreement with post-Newtonian precession of orbital and spin directions for two new precessing simulations, and we discuss other applications of this catalog. Formidable challenges remain: eg., precession complicates the connection of numerical and approximate analytical waveforms, and vast regions of the parameter space remain unexplored.