Toward a dynamical shift condition for unequal mass black hole binary simulations

Abstract

Moving puncture simulations of black hole binaries rely on a specific gauge choice that leads to approximately stationary coordinates near each black hole. Part of the shift condition is a damping parameter, which has to be properly chosen for stable evolutions. However, a constant damping parameter does not account for the difference in mass in unequal mass binaries. We introduce a position dependent shift damping that addresses this problem. Although the coordinates change, the changes in the extracted gravitational waves are small.