Francesco Crescimbeni "Accuracy of ringdown models calibrated to numerical relativity simulations"

Wednesday 3 Dec 2025, 12:30 → 14:00 Europe/Rome

Sala Lauree

The final stage of a gravitational wave signal from a binary black hole merger, known as ringdown, offers a unique opportunity to probe extreme curvature and strong-field gravity, making it a key tool for testing black hole (BH) dynamics and fundamental physics. However, physical models of BH resonances driving the ringdown regime are only known in the late-time stationary regime. Understanding their robustness when extrapolating to earlier times, and recovering a larger signal portion, is currently a key open problem in the field. 

We resolve this question by performing a detailed study of ringdown models accuracy against numerical relativity simulations. We employ a time domain formalism, and carefully quantify the impact of subtle data-conditioning procedures required to obtain unbiases estimates, which we show having a crucial impact in high-accuracy studies.

We then determine the validity regime of ringdown models for a given experimental accuracy, comparing the performances of state-of-the-art waveforms. Our methodology provides a robust framework for evaluating ringdown models validity and will be instrumental in future Quasi-Normal Mode observational searches.