2008/03/16 by A. Gopakumar, Achamveedu Gopakumar, Gerhard Schäfer +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.77.104023
published as Phys.Rev.D77:104023,2008 · 16 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2008/03/16 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Binary black hole coalescence is treated semianalytically by a novel approach. Our prescription employs the conservative Skeleton Hamiltonian that describes orbiting Brill-Lindquist wormholes (termed punctures in numerical relativity) within a waveless truncation to the Einstein field equations [G. Faye, P. Jaranowski, and G. Sch"afer, Phys. Rev. D 69, 124029 (2004)]. We incorporate, in a transparent Hamiltonian way and in Burke-Thorne gauge structure, the effects of gravitational radiation reaction into the above Skeleton dynamics with the help of 3.5PN accurate angular momentum flux for compact binaries in quasicircular orbits to obtain a semianalytic puncture evolution to model merging black hole binaries. With the help of the TaylorT4 approximant at 3.5PN order, we perform a first-order comparison between gravitational-wave phase evolutions in numerical relativity and our approach for equal-mass binary black holes. This comparison reveals that a modified Skeletonian reactive dynamics that employs flexible parameters will be required to prevent the dephasing between our scheme and numerical relativity, similar to what is pursued in the effective one-body approach. A rough estimate for the gravitational waveform associated with the binary black hole coalescence in our approach is also provided.