2005/12/05 by Carlos F. Sopuerta, Pablo Laguna · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.73.044028
published as Phys.Rev. D73 (2006) 044028 · RevTeX 4. 18 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2005/12/05 · openalex publication_date 2006/02/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The description of extreme-mass-ratio binary systems in the inspiral phase is a challenging problem in gravitational wave physics with significant relevance for the space interferometer LISA. The main difficulty lies in the evaluation of the effects of the small body's gravitational field on itself. To that end, an accurate computation of the perturbations produced by the small body with respect the background geometry of the large object, a massive black hole, is required. In this paper we present a new computational approach based on finite element methods to solve the master equations describing perturbations of nonrotating black holes due to an orbiting pointlike object. The numerical computations are carried out in the time domain by using evolution algorithms for wave-type equations. We show the accuracy of the method by comparing our calculations with previous results in the literature. Finally, we discuss the relevance of this method for achieving accurate descriptions of extreme-mass-ratio binaries.