Formation of a rotating black hole from a close-limit head-on collision

Realistic black-hole collisions result in a rapidly rotating Kerr hole, but simulations to date have focused on nonrotating final holes. Using a new solution of the Einstein initial-value equations we present here waveforms and radiation for an axisymmetric Kerr-hole-forming collision starting from small initial separation (the "close-limit" approximation) of two identical rotating holes. Several new features are present in the results: (i) In the limit of small separation, the waveform is linear (not quadratic) in the separtion. (ii) The waveforms show damped oscillations mixing quasinormal ringing of different multipoles. [S0031-9007(99)08462-8].