Effective one-body approach to general relativistic two-body dynamics

1998/11/26 by Alessandra Buonanno, A. Buonanno, T. Damour +1 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.59.084006

published as Phys.Rev. D59 (1999) 084006 · 52 pages, RevTex, epsfig, 8 figures

arxiv created 1998/11/26 · openalex publication_date 1999/03/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

We map the general relativistic two-body problem onto that of a test particle moving in an effective external metric. This effective-one-body approach defines, in a non-perturbative manner, the late dynamical evolution of a coalescing binary system of compact objects. The transition from the adiabatic inspiral, driven by gravitational radiation damping, to an unstable plunge, induced by strong spacetime curvature, is predicted to occur for orbits more tightly bound than the innermost stable circular orbit in a Schwarzschild metric of mass M=m₁+m₂. The binding energy, angular momentum and orbital frequency of the innermost stable circular orbit for the time-symmetric two-body problem are determined as a function of the mass ratio.

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