Abstract

We perform a sequence of binary black hole simulations with increasingly small mass ratio, reaching a 1:128 binary that displays 13 orbits before merger. Based on a detailed convergence study of the $q=1/15$ nonspinning case, we apply additional mesh refinements levels on the smaller hole horizon to reach the $q=1/32$, $q=1/64$, and $q=1/128$ cases. Roughly linear strong computational scaling with $q$ is observed on 8 nodes simulations. We compute the remnant properties of the merger; final mass, spin, and recoil. We also compute the gravitational waveforms, peak frequency, amplitude, and luminosity. We compare those values with predictions of the corresponding phenomenological formulas, reproducing the particle limit, and we then use these new results to improve their fitting coefficients.