Eccentric binary black hole simulations with numerical relativity

We perform a systematic study of eccentric orbiting nonspinning black hole binaries. We first make a technical study of the optimal full numerical techniques to apply to these studies. We find the grid structure and global resolution that optimize accuracy and speed of current computational resources, while choosing different gauge parameters and Courant factors, $c=dx/dt$, find its optimal value of 0.45. With these choices we perform a study of the merger times ${t}_{m}(e)$ as a function of eccentricity, $e$, for configurations with comparable orbital energy content and find that its dependence is well represented by the post-Newtonian factor $F(e)=(1+73{e}^{2}/24+37{e}^{4}/96)/(1\ensuremath{-}{e}^{2}{)}^{7/2}$, when merger times are normalized to their quasicircular values, i.e., ${t}_{m}(e)\ensuremath{\approx}{t}_{m}(0)/F(e)$. We then perform a systematic coverage of five small-medium eccentricities up to $e\ensuremath{\sim}0.45$ and six mass ratios up to $8.5\ensuremath{\mathbin:}1$ producing a total of 30 simulations covering up to 25 orbits to merger to further model the unequal mass ratio dependence of merger times and as a seed study to a forthcoming new systematic catalog of gravitational waveforms from eccentric binary black holes to allow to perform direct parameter estimations of gravitational waves events.