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Abstract

Final Mass and Spin of Merged Black Holes and the Golden Black Hole

We expand our recent study of scattering/hyperbolic mergers of equal mass black holes to include spinning holes and to consider a broader range of initial orbital angular momentum. These encounters are plunge coalescences aimed at minimizing angular momentum radiation losses during the merger, thus maximizing the final spin of the merged black hole. For the optimal case of initial black holes with spins aligned with the orbital angular momentum, we find that the final spin of the black hole can reach a maximum spin a/M_h = 0.98 when extrapolated to maximal spinning merging black holes. We also find that as one approaches the merger/no-merger threshold the encounters produce a golden black hole whose mass M_h/M and spin a/M_h depend on the total initial spin of the merging black holes but not on the initial orbital angular momentum configuration. Furthermore, solutions approaching the golden black hole limit track a spiral in the mass-spin plane of parameters of the final black hole.

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