High-spin binary black hole mergers

We study identical mass black hole binaries with spins perpendicular to the binary's orbital plane. These binaries have individual spins ranging from $s/m^2=-0.90$ to $0.90$, ($s_1 = s_2$ in all cases) which is near the limit possible with standard Bowen-York puncture initial data. The extreme cases correspond to the largest initial spin simulations to date. Our results expand the parameter space covered by Rezzolla {\it et al}. and, when combining both data sets, we obtain estimations for the minimum and maximum values for the intrinsic angular momenta of the remnant of binary black hole mergers of $J/M^2=0.341(4)$ and $0.951(4)$ respectively.