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We present gravitational waveforms for the last orbits and merger of black-hole-binary systems along two branches of the black-hole-binary parameter space: equal-mass binaries with equal nonprecessing spins, and nonspinning unequal-mass binaries. The waveforms are calculated from numerical solutions of Einstein's equations for black-hole binaries that complete between six and ten orbits before merger. Along the equal-mass spinning branch, the spin parameter of each black hole is ₈=S₈/M₈^2-0. 85, 0. 85, and along the unequal-mass branch the mass ratio is q=M₂/M₁1, 4. We discuss the construction of low-eccentricity puncture initial data for these cases, the properties of the final merged black hole, and compare the last 8--10 gravitational-wave cycles up to M=0. 1 with the phase and amplitude predicted by standard post-Newtonian (PN) approximants. As in previous studies, we find that the phase from the 3. 5PN TaylorT4 approximant is most accurate for nonspinning binaries. For equal-mass spinning binaries the 3. 5PN TaylorT1 approximant (including spin terms up to only 2. 5PN order) gives the most robust performance, but it is possible to treat TaylorT4 in such a way that it gives the best accuracy for spins ₈>-0. 75. When high-order amplitude corrections are included, the PN amplitude of the (=2, 0ex{0ex}m=2) modes is larger than the numerical relativity amplitude by between 2--4%.
Hannam et al. (Fri,) studied this question.