2013/08/31 by M. D. Hannam, Mark Hannam, Patricia Schmidt +13 · 9 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Angular momentum #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary black hole #Binary number #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Computational physics #Computer science #General relativity #Geometry #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #Gravitational wave #Numerical relativity #Parameter space #Physics #Precession #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Theoretical physics #Waveform #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.113.151101
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 151101 (2014) · 5 pages, 2 figures. Matches version published in PRL
arxiv created 2014/09/19 · openalex publication_date 2014/10/07 · arxiv updated 2014/10/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The construction of a model of the gravitational-wave (GW) signal from generic configurations of spinning-black-hole binaries, through inspiral, merger, and ringdown, is one of the most pressing theoretical problems in the buildup to the era of GW astronomy. We present the first such model in the frequency domain, PhenomP, which captures the basic phenomenology of the seven-dimensional parameter space of binary configurations with only three key physical parameters. Two of these (the binary's mass ratio and an effective total spin parallel to the orbital angular momentum, which determines the inspiral rate) define an underlying nonprecessing-binary model. The nonprecessing-binary waveforms are then twisted up with approximate expressions for the precessional motion, which require only one additional physical parameter, an effective precession spin, χ(p). All other parameters (total mass, sky location, orientation and polarization, and initial phase) can be specified trivially. The model is constructed in the frequency domain, which will be essential for efficient GW searches and source measurements. We have tested the model's fidelity for GW applications by comparison against hybrid post-Newtonian-numerical-relativity waveforms at a variety of configurations--although we did not use these numerical simulations in the construction of the model. Our model can be used to develop GW searches, to study the implications for astrophysical measurements, and as a simple conceptual framework to form the basis of generic-binary waveform modeling in the advanced-detector era.