Visualizing merging binary black holes with SpECTRE

Numerical-relativity models of merging black holes are important for predicting the gravitational waves that they emit and for understanding the behavior of the warped spacetime as the holes merge. Visualizations are important tools for understanding and confirming the output of simulations. In this presentation, I’ll present new visualizations of merging black holes using SpECTRE, an open-source, next-generation numerical-relativity code. In particular, I will show the methods used to visualize the curvature of space (characterized by the three-dimensional Ricci scalar), the lapse (the rate of flow of time), and discuss the progress I’ve made towards visualizing the emitted gravitational waves using the Newman-Penrose scalar Ѱ4. The Ѱ4 scalar will also be used as a comparison for the new CCE system being implemented within SpECTRE which propagates numerical data towards null infinity which in theory gives a more accurate waveform.