Analytic approximations in GR and gravitational waves

2018/12/18 by Luc Blanchet
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary black hole #Binary number #Classical mechanics #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #General relativity #Gravitational field #Gravitational wave #Introduction to the mathematics of general relativity #LIGO #Numerical relativity #Perturbation (astronomy) #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Speed of gravity #Two-body problem in general relativity #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0218271819300118

24 pages, 2 figures, based on a plenary talk given at the Fifteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting on recent developments in General Relativity (MG15), Rome, July 2018, added references

openalex publication_date 2018/12/18 · arxiv created 2018/12/21 · arxiv updated 2019/05/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Analytic approximation methods in general relativity play a very important role when analyzing the gravitational wave signals recently discovered by the LIGO and Virgo detectors. In this contribution, we present the state of the art and some recent developments in the famous post-Newtonian (PN) or slow-motion approximation, which has successfully computed the equations of motion and the early inspiral phase of compact binary systems. We discuss also some interesting interfaces between the PN and the gravitational self-force (GSF) approach based on black-hole perturbation theory, and between PN and the post-Minkowskian (PM) approximation, namely a nonlinearity expansion valid for weak field and possibly fast-moving sources.

Citations

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