Application of initial data sequences to the study of Black Hole dynamical trapping horizons

Non-continuous "jumps" of Apparent Horizons occur generically in 3+1 (binary) black hole evolutions. The dynamical trapping horizon framework suggests a spacetime picture in which these "Apparent Horizon jumps" are understood as spatial cuts of a single spacetime hypersurface foliated by (compact) marginally outer trapped surfaces. We present here some work in progress which makes use of uni-parametric sequences of (axisymmetric) binary black hole initial data for exploring the plausibility of this spacetime picture. The modelling of Einstein evolutions by sequences of initial data has proved to be a successful methodological tool in other settings for the understanding of certain qualitative features of evolutions in restricted physical regimes.
Comment: Contribution to the proceedings volume of the Spanish Relativity Meeting 2008: Physics and Mathematics of Gravitation, Salamanca, Spain, 15-19 Sep 2008