General relativistic simulations of black hole-neutron star mergers have currently been limited to low-mass black holes ( M _ { BH } \leq 7 M _ { \odot } ) , even though population synthesis models indicate that a majority of mergers might involve more massive black holes ( M _ { BH } \geq 10 M _ { \odot } ) .
We present the first general relativistic simulations of black hole-neutron star mergers with M _ { BH } \sim 10 M _ { \odot } .
For massive black holes , the tidal forces acting on the neutron star are usually too weak to disrupt the star before it reaches the innermost stable circular orbit of the black hole .
Varying the spin of the black hole in the range a _ { BH } / M _ { BH } = 0.5 – 0.9 , we find that mergers result in the disruption of the star and the formation of a massive accretion disk only for large spins a _ { BH } / M _ { BH } \geq 0.7 – 0.9 .
From these results , we obtain updated constraints on the ability of BHNS mergers to be the progenitors of short gamma-ray bursts as a function of the mass and spin of the black hole .
We also discuss the dependence of the gravitational wave signal on the black hole parameters , and provide waveforms and spectra from simulations beginning 7 – 8 orbits before merger .