We show that puncture data for quasicircular binary black hole orbits allow a special gauge choice that realizes some of the necessary conditions for the existence of an approximate helical Killing vector field. Introducing free parameters for the lapse at the punctures we can satisfy the condition that the Komar and Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass agree at spatial infinity. Several other conditions for an approximate Killing vector are then automatically satisfied, and the 3-metric evolves on a time scale smaller than the orbital time scale. The time derivative of the extrinsic curvature, however, remains significant. Nevertheless, quasicircular puncture data are not as far from possessing a helical Killing vector as one might have expected.

• Received 5 June 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.68.064008