Improved analytical description of inspiralling and coalescing black-hole binaries

2009/02/28 by Thibault Damour, Alessandro Nagar · 4 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary black hole #Binary number #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Computer science #Energy flux #Formalism (music) #General relativity #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #Gravitation #Gravitational energy #Gravitational redshift #Gravitational wave #Numerical relativity #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Tests of general relativity #Theoretical physics #Theory of relativity #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.79.081503

published as Phys.Rev.D79:081503,2009 · 5 pages, 5 figures, to apper as a Phys. Rev. D Rapid Communication

arxiv created 2009/03/19 · openalex publication_date 2009/04/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We present an analytical formalism, within the effective-one-body framework, which predicts gravitational-wave signals from inspiralling and coalescing black-hole binaries that agree, within numerical errors, with the results of the currently most accurate numerical-relativity simulations for several different mass ratios. In the equal-mass case, the gravitational-wave energy flux predicted by our formalism agrees, within numerical errors, with the most accurate numerical-relativity energy flux. We think that our formalism opens a realistic possibility of constructing a sufficiently accurate, large bank of gravitational-wave templates, as needed both for detection and data analysis of (nonspinning) coalescing binary black holes.

Citations

• Gravitational-Wave Extraction from an Inspiraling Configuration of Merging Black Holes
• Comparing effective-one-body gravitational waveforms to accurate numerical data
• Dimensional regularization of the gravitational interaction of point masses
• Faithful effective-one-body waveforms of small-mass-ratio coalescing black hole binaries
• Effective one-body approach to general relativistic two-body dynamics
• Determination of the last stable orbit for circular general relativistic binaries at the third post-Newtonian approximation

Cited by

• The general relativistic two body problem
• Non-linear multipole interactions and gravitational-wave octupole modes for inspiralling compact binaries to third-and-a-half post-Newtonian order
• Template banks to search for low-mass binary black holes in advanced gravitational-wave detectors
• Accuracy and effectualness of closed-form, frequency-domain waveforms for nonspinning black hole binaries