Highly accurate simulations of asymmetric black-hole scattering and cross validation of effective-one-body models

The study of unbound binary–black-hole encounters provides a gauge-invariant approach to exploring strong-field gravitational interactions in two-body systems, which can subsequently inform waveform models for bound orbits. In this work, we present 60 new highly accurate numerical relativity (NR) simulations of black-hole scattering, generated using the Spectral Einstein Code. Our simulations include 14 spin-aligned configurations, as well as 16 configurations with unequal masses, up to a mass ratio of 10. We perform the first direct comparison of scattering angles computed using different NR codes, finding good agreement. We compare our NR scattering angle results to the post-Minkowskian-based effective-one-body (EOB) closed-form models and <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <a:msub> <a:mi>w</a:mi> <a:mrow> <a:mi>EOB</a:mi> </a:mrow> </a:msub> </a:math> , finding less than 5% deviation except near the scatter-capture separatrix. Comparisons with the post-Newtonian-based EOB evolution models and reveal that the former agrees within 8% accuracy with nonspinning NR results across most parameter ranges, whereas the latter matches similarly at lower energies but diverges significantly at higher energies. Both evolution EOB models exhibit increased deviations for spinning systems, predicting a notably different location of the capture separatrix compared to NR. Our key result is the first measurement of disparate scattering angles from NR simulations due to asymmetric gravitational-wave emission. We compare these results to models constructed to calculate the scattering angle of a single black hole in asymmetric systems.