Black Hole - Neutron Star Binary Simulations at Georgia Tech

Mixed compact object binaries consisting of a black hole and a neutron star are expected to be not only one of the primary sources of gravitational radiation to be observed by interferometric detectors but also the central engine of short gamma-ray bursts. We report on the status of our effort at Georgia Tech to model these mixed binary systems using the moving puncture method. The results are obtained with an enhanced version our vacuum MayaKranc code coupled to the hydrodynamics Whisky code. We present preliminary results of gravitational waveforms and the disruption of the neutron star for simple polytropic equations of state.