Testing the Boundary to Bound States Dictionary with Numerical Relativity

Recently, the Boundary-to-Bound-states (B2B) dictionary, connecting orbital and radiative observables between bound and unbound orbits, was introduced in the pertubative regime. We produce a large number of numerical simulations of bound and unbound encounters between two non spinning and equal mass black holes in order to test the main results of this dictionary in the non-pertubative regime. We primarily focus on testing the energy and angular momentum radiated, as well as orbital parameters such as the period and periastron advance. We find that, across a wide range of eccentricities, the B2B relationships do not hold in the non-pertubative regime, thus placing a clear limit on the applicability of these relationships for generating gravitational waveforms. Furthermore, we study the boundary between scattering and non scattering encounters and produce an approximate separatrix between these two types of orbits.