Three Black Holes Modeled in Ultimate Smash-Up

April 11, 2008 -- Researchers have successfully simulated the outcome of what is perhaps the heaviest of heavyweight match-ups in the universe: the collision of three colossal black holes.

The triple collision and merger simulation comes on the heels of the actual discovery of a triple quasar last year. Quasars are gigantic black holes, billions of times more massive than the sun, located at the center of a galaxy.

They are visible only when matter is falling violently into them. A triple quasar, therefore, implies that three galaxies have collided.

This sort of super-heavyweight battle is of particular interest to physicists hunting for the so far elusive gravitational waves that were predicted by the theories of Albert Einstein.

To model the three-way clash and merging of such massive objects, researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology's (RIT) Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation used a supercomputer that crunched a lot of tough equations for a week.

"You have to solve Einstein's equations," said black hole modeler Carlos Lousto of RIT. "You end up solving a huge system of equations. It's a really massive problem."

Lousto and his colleagues Manuela Campanelli and Yosef Zlochower are scheduled to present their results on April 15 at the meeting of the American Physical Society in St. Louis.