2,295 research outputs found
Gravitational waves from black hole binary inspiral and merger: The span of third post-Newtonian effective-one-body templates
We extend the description of gravitational waves emitted by binary black
holes during the final stages of inspiral and merger by introducing in the
third post-Newtonian (3PN) effective-one-body (EOB) templates seven new
``flexibility'' parameters that affect the two-body dynamics and gravitational
radiation emission. The plausible ranges of these flexibility parameters,
notably the parameter characterising the fourth post-Newtonian effects in the
dynamics, are estimated. Using these estimates, we show that the currently
available standard 3PN bank of EOB templates does ``span'' the space of signals
opened up by all the flexibility parameters, in that their maximized mutual
overlaps are larger than 96.5%. This confirms the effectualness of 3PN EOB
templates for the detection of binary black holes in gravitational-wave data
from interferometric detectors. The possibility to drastically reduce the
number of EOB templates using a few ``universal'' phasing functions is
suggested.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures, 4 tables, with revtex4, Minor clarifications,
Final published versio
Dimensional regularization of the third post-Newtonian dynamics of point particles in harmonic coordinates
Dimensional regularization is used to derive the equations of motion of two
point masses in harmonic coordinates. At the third post-Newtonian (3PN)
approximation, it is found that the dimensionally regularized equations of
motion contain a pole part [proportional to 1/(d-3)] which diverges as the
space dimension d tends to 3. It is proven that the pole part can be
renormalized away by introducing suitable shifts of the two world-lines
representing the point masses, and that the same shifts renormalize away the
pole part of the "bulk" metric tensor g_munu(x). The ensuing, finite
renormalized equations of motion are then found to belong to the general
parametric equations of motion derived by an extended Hadamard regularization
method, and to uniquely determine the heretofore unknown 3PN parameter lambda
to be: lambda = - 1987/3080. This value is fully consistent with the recent
determination of the equivalent 3PN static ambiguity parameter, omega_s = 0, by
a dimensional-regularization derivation of the Hamiltonian in
Arnowitt-Deser-Misner coordinates. Our work provides a new, powerful check of
the consistency of the dimensional regularization method within the context of
the classical gravitational interaction of point particles.Comment: 82 pages, LaTeX 2e, REVTeX 4, 8 PostScript figures, minor changes to
reflect Phys. Rev. D versio
Third post-Newtonian dynamics of compact binaries: Equations of motion in the center-of-mass frame
The equations of motion of compact binary systems and their associated
Lagrangian formulation have been derived in previous works at the third
post-Newtonian (3PN) approximation of general relativity in harmonic
coordinates. In the present work we investigate the binary's relative dynamics
in the center-of-mass frame (center of mass located at the origin of the
coordinates). We obtain the 3PN-accurate expressions of the center-of-mass
positions and equations of the relative binary motion. We show that the
equations derive from a Lagrangian (neglecting the radiation reaction), from
which we deduce the conserved center-of-mass energy and angular momentum at the
3PN order. The harmonic-coordinates center-of-mass Lagrangian is equivalent,
{\it via} a contact transformation of the particles' variables, to the
center-of-mass Hamiltonian in ADM coordinates that is known from the
post-Newtonian ADM-Hamiltonian formalism. As an application we investigate the
dynamical stability of circular binary orbits at the 3PN order.Comment: 31 pages, to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Post-Newtonian approximation for isolated systems calculated by matched asymptotic expansions
Two long-standing problems with the post-Newtonian approximation for isolated
slowly-moving systems in general relativity are: (i) the appearance at high
post-Newtonian orders of divergent Poisson integrals, casting a doubt on the
soundness of the post-Newtonian series; (ii) the domain of validity of the
approximation which is limited to the near-zone of the source, and prevents
one, a priori, from incorporating the condition of no-incoming radiation, to be
imposed at past null infinity. In this article, we resolve the problem (i) by
iterating the post-Newtonian hierarchy of equations by means of a new
(Poisson-type) integral operator that is free of divergencies, and the problem
(ii) by matching the post-Newtonian near-zone field to the exterior field of
the source, known from previous work as a multipolar-post-Minkowskian expansion
satisfying the relevant boundary conditions at infinity. As a result, we obtain
an algorithm for iterating the post-Newtonian series up to any order, and we
determine the terms, present in the post-Newtonian field, that are associated
with the gravitational-radiation reaction onto an isolated slowly-moving matter
system.Comment: 61 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Gravitational-Wave Inspiral of Compact Binary Systems to 7/2 Post-Newtonian Order
The inspiral of compact binaries, driven by gravitational-radiation reaction,
is investigated through 7/2 post-Newtonian (3.5PN) order beyond the quadrupole
radiation. We outline the derivation of the 3.5PN-accurate binary's
center-of-mass energy and emitted gravitational flux. The analysis consistently
includes the relativistic effects in the binary's equations of motion and
multipole moments, as well as the contributions of tails, and tails of tails,
in the wave zone. However the result is not fully determined because of some
physical incompleteness, present at the 3PN order, of the model of
point-particle and the associated Hadamard-type self-field regularization. The
orbital phase, whose prior knowledge is crucial for searching and analyzing the
inspiral signal, is computed from the standard energy balance argument.Comment: 12 pages, version which includes the correction of an Erratum to be
published in Phys. Rev. D (2005
Gravitational radiation reaction in the equations of motion of compact binaries to 3.5 post-Newtonian order
We compute the radiation reaction force on the orbital motion of compact
binaries to the 3.5 post-Newtonian (3.5PN) approximation, i.e. one PN order
beyond the dominant effect. The method is based on a direct PN iteration of the
near-zone metric and equations of motion of an extended isolated system, using
appropriate ``asymptotically matched'' flat-space-time retarded potentials. The
formalism is subsequently applied to binary systems of point particles, with
the help of the Hadamard self-field regularisation. Our result is the 3.5PN
acceleration term in a general harmonic coordinate frame. Restricting the
expression to the centre-of-mass frame, we find perfect agreement with the
result derived in a class of coordinate systems by Iyer and Will using the
energy and angular momentum balance equations.Comment: 28 pages, references added, to appear in Classical and Quantum
Gravit
Gravitational waves from inspiralling compact binaries: Energy loss and waveform to second--post-Newtonian order
Gravitational waves generated by inspiralling compact binaries are
investigated to the second--post-Newtonian (2PN) approximation of general
relativity. Using a recently developed 2PN-accurate wave generation formalism,
we compute the gravitational waveform and associated energy loss rate from a
binary system of point-masses moving on a quasi-circular orbit. The crucial new
input is our computation of the 2PN-accurate ``source'' quadrupole moment of
the binary. Tails in both the waveform and energy loss rate at infinity are
explicitly computed. Gravitational radiation reaction effects on the orbital
frequency and phase of the binary are deduced from the energy loss. In the
limiting case of a very small mass ratio between the two bodies we recover the
results obtained by black hole perturbation methods. We find that finite mass
ratio effects are very significant as they increase the 2PN contribution to the
phase by up to 52\%. The results of this paper should be of use when
deciphering the signals observed by the future LIGO/VIRGO network of
gravitational-wave detectors.Comment: 43 pages, LaTeX-ReVTeX, no figures
Dimensional regularization of the third post-Newtonian gravitational wave generation from two point masses
Dimensional regularization is applied to the computation of the gravitational
wave field generated by compact binaries at the third post-Newtonian (3PN)
approximation. We generalize the wave generation formalism from isolated
post-Newtonian matter systems to d spatial dimensions, and apply it to point
masses (without spins), modelled by delta-function singularities. We find that
the quadrupole moment of point-particle binaries in harmonic coordinates
contains a pole when epsilon = d-3 -> 0 at the 3PN order. It is proved that the
pole can be renormalized away by means of the same shifts of the particle
world-lines as in our recent derivation of the 3PN equations of motion. The
resulting renormalized (finite when epsilon -> 0) quadrupole moment leads to
unique values for the ambiguity parameters xi, kappa and zeta, which were
introduced in previous computations using Hadamard's regularization. Several
checks of these values are presented. These results complete the derivation of
the gravitational waves emitted by inspiralling compact binaries up to the
3.5PN level of accuracy which is needed for detection and analysis of the
signals in the gravitational-wave antennas LIGO/VIRGO and LISA.Comment: 60 pages, LaTeX 2e, REVTeX 4, 10 PostScript files (1 figure and 9
Young tableaux used in the text
Innermost circular orbit of binary black holes at the third post-Newtonian approximation
The equations of motion of two point masses have recently been derived at the
3PN approximation of general relativity. From that work we determine the
location of the innermost circular orbit or ICO, defined by the minimum of the
binary's 3PN energy as a function of the orbital frequency for circular orbits.
We find that the post-Newtonian series converges well for equal masses. Spin
effects appropriate to corotational black-hole binaries are included. We
compare the result with a recent numerical calculation of the ICO in the case
of two black holes moving on exactly circular orbits (helical symmetry). The
agreement is remarkably good, indicating that the 3PN approximation is adequate
to locate the ICO of two black holes with comparable masses. This conclusion is
reached with the post-Newtonian expansion expressed in the standard Taylor
form, without using resummation techniques such as Pad\'e approximants and/or
effective-one-body methods.Comment: 21 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev. D (spin effects appropriate to
corotational black-hole binaries are included; discussion on the validity of
the approximation is added
The dynamics of the gravitational two-body problem at fourth post-Newtonian order and at quadratic order in the Newton constant
We derive the conservative part of the Lagrangian and the energy of a
gravitationally bound two-body system at fourth post-Newtonian order, up to
terms quadratic in the Newton constant. We also show that such terms are
compatible with Lorentz invariance and we write an ansatz for the
center-of-mass position. The remaining terms carrying higher powers of the
Newton constant are currently under investigation.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures. Typos in formulae corrected, references added,
more comments in the conclusion in v
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