Numerical relativity meets data analysis: spinning binary black hole case

We present a study of the gravitational waveforms from a series of spinning, equal-mass black hole binaries focusing on the harmonic content of the waves and the contribution of the individual harmonics to the signal-to-noise ratio. The gravitational waves were produced from two series of evolutions with black holes of initial spins equal in magnitude and anti-aligned with each other. In one series the magnitude of the spin is varied; while in the second, the initial angle between the black hole spins and the orbital angular momentum varies. We also conduct a preliminary investigation into using these waveforms as templates for detecting spinning binary black holes. Since these runs are relativity short, containing about two to three orbits, merger and ringdown, we limit our study to systems of total mass >= 50M(circle dot). This choice ensures that our waveforms are present in the ground-based detector band without needing addition gravitational-wave cycles. We find that while the mode contribution to the signal-to-noise ratio varies with the initial angle, the total mass of the system caused greater variations in the match.