Cross section, final spin, and zoom-whirl behavior in high-energy black-hole collisions

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Sep 25;103(13):131102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.131102. Epub 2009 Sep 22.

Abstract

We study the collision of two highly boosted equal-mass, nonrotating black holes with generic impact parameter. We find such systems to exhibit zoom-whirl behavior when fine-tuning the impact parameter. Near the threshold of immediate merger the remnant black-hole Kerr parameter can be near maximal (a/M greater, similar 0.95) and the radiated energy can be as large as 35 +/- 5% of the center-of-mass energy.