6533b829fe1ef96bd1289a62

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Measuring the black hole spin direction in 3D Cartesian numerical relativity simulations

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We show that the so-called flat-space rotational Killing vector method for measuring the Cartesian components of a black hole spin can be derived from the surface integral of Weinberg's pseudotensor over the apparent horizon surface when using Gaussian normal coordinates in the integration. Moreover, the integration of the pseudotensor in this gauge yields the Komar angular momentum integral in a foliation adapted to the axisymmetry of the spacetime. As a result, the method does not explicitly depend on the evolved lapse $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ and shift ${\ensuremath{\beta}}^{i}$ on the respective time slice, as they are fixed to Gaussian normal coordinates while leaving the coordinate labels of the spatial metric ${\ensuremath{\gamma}}_{ij}$ and the extrinsic curvature ${K}_{ij}$ unchanged. Such gauge fixing endows the method with coordinate invariance, which is not present in integral expressions using Weinberg's pseudotensor, as they normally rely on the explicit use of Cartesian coordinates.