2006/12/31 by John G. Baker, James R. van Meter, Sean T. McWilliams +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.99.181101
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.99:181101,2007 · Replaced with published version -- one figure removed, text and other figures updated for clarity of discussion
arxiv created 2007/10/29 · openalex publication_date 2007/10/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
General relativity predicts the gravitational wave signatures of coalescing binary black holes. Explicit waveform predictions for such systems, required for optimal analysis of observational data, have so far been achieved primarily using the post-Newtonian (PN) approximation. The quality of this treatment is unclear, however, for the important late-inspiral portion. We derive late-inspiral waveforms via a complementary approach, direct numerical simulation of Einstein's equations. We compare waveform phasing from simulations of the last approximately 14 cycles of gravitational radiation from equal-mass, nonspinning black holes with the corresponding 2.5PN, 3PN, and 3.5PN orbital phasing. We find phasing agreement consistent with internal error estimates for either approach, suggesting that PN waveforms for this system are effective until the last orbit prior to final merger.