- Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research Germany
- University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign United States
- California Institute of Technology United States
- Max Planck Society Germany
- University of Massachusetts System United States
- University of Birmingham United Kingdom
- Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics - Greifswald Germany
- University of Mississippi United States
- Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids Germany
- Cornell University United States
- University of Massachusetts Dartmouth United States
- University of Milano-Bicocca Italy
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and Astrophysics The University of Chicago United States
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Physics Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics Germany
Only numerical relativity simulations can capture the full complexities of binary black hole mergers. These simulations, however, are prohibitively expensive for direct data analysis applications such as parameter estimation. We present two new fast and accurate surrogate models for the outputs of these simulations: the first model, NRSur7dq4, predicts the gravitational waveform and the second model, \RemnantModel, predicts the properties of the remnant black hole. These models extend previous 7-dimensional, non-eccentric precessing models to higher mass ratios, and have been trained against 1528 simulations with mass ratios $q\leq4$ and spin magnitudes $\chi_1,\chi_2 \leq 0.8$, with generic spin directions. The waveform model, NRSur7dq4, which begins about 20 orbits before merger, includes all $\ell \leq 4$ spin-weighted spherical harmonic modes, as well as the precession frame dynamics and spin evolution of the black holes. The final black hole model, \RemnantModel, models the mass, spin, and recoil kick velocity of the remnant black hole. In their training parameter range, both models are shown to be more accurate than existing models by at least an order of magnitude, with errors comparable to the estimated errors in the numerical relativity simulations. We also show that the surrogate models work well even when extrapolated outside their training parameter space range, up to mass ratios $q=6$.
Comment: Matches published version. Models publicly available at https://zenodo.org/record/3455886#.XZ9s1-dKjBI and https://pypi.org/project/surfinBH