EVOLUTION OF DISTORTED ROTATING BLACK-HOLES .2. DYNAMICS AND ANALYSIS

We have developed a numerical code to study the evolution of distorted , rotating black holes. This code is used to evolve a new family of bl ack hole initial data sets corresponding to distorted ''Kerr'' holes w ith a wide range of rotation parameters, and distorted Schwarzschild b lack holes with odd-parity radiation. Rotating black holes with rotati on parameters as high as a/m = 0.87 are evolved and analyzed in this p aper. The evolutions are generally carried out to about t = 100M, wher e M is the ADM mass. We have extracted both the even- and odd-parity g ravitational waveforms, and find the quasinormal modes of the holes to be excited in all cases. We also track the apparent horizons of the b lack holes and find them to be a useful tool for interpreting the nume rical results. We are able to compute the masses of the black holes fr om the measurements of their apparent horizons, as well total energy r adiated and find their sum to be in excellent agreement with the ADM m ass.