First Law of Mechanics for Compact Binaries on Eccentric Orbits

Using the canonical Arnowitt-Deser-Misner Hamiltonian formalism, a "first law of mechanics" is established for binary systems of point masses moving along generic stable bound (eccentric) orbits. This relationship is checked to hold within the post-Newtonian approximation to general relativity, up to third (3PN) order. Several applications are discussed, including the use of gravitational self-force results to inform post-Newtonian theory and the effective one-body model for eccentric-orbit compact binaries.Comment: 26 pages; matches published versio

The Overlap of Numerical Relativity, Perturbation Theory and Post-Newtonian Theory in the Binary Black Hole Problem

Inspiralling and coalescing binary black holes are promising sources of gravitational radiation. The orbital motion and gravitational-wave emission of such system can be modelled using a variety of approximation schemes and numerical methods in general relativity: the post-Newtonian formalism, black hole perturbation theory, numerical relativity simulations, and the effective one-body model. We review recent work at the multiple interfaces of these analytical and numerical techniques, emphasizing the use of coordinate-invariant relationships to perform meaningful comparisons. Such comparisons provide independent checks of the validity of the various calculations, they inform the development of a universal, semi-analytical model of the binary dynamics and gravitational-wave emission, and they help to delineate the respective domains of validity of each approximation method. For instance, several recent comparisons suggest that perturbation theory may find applications in a broader range of physical problems than previously thought, including the radiative inspiral of intermediate mass-ratio and comparable-mass black hole binaries.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures; invited review for IJMPD; v2: references added, matches published versio

A Note on Celestial Mechanics in Kerr Spacetime

The Hamilton-Jacobi equation for test particles in the Kerr geometry is separable. Using action-angle variables, we establish several relations between various physical quantities that characterize bound timelike geodesic orbits around a spinning black hole, including the particle's rest mass, energy, angular momentum, mean redshift and fundamental frequencies. These relations are explicitly checked to hold true in the particular case of equatorial circular orbits. An application to the gravitational wave-driven, adiabatic inspiral of extreme-mass-ratio compact binaries is briefly discussed.Comment: 7 pages; matches version to appear in Class. Quant. Gra

The complete non-spinning effective-one-body metric at linear order in the mass ratio

Using the main result of a companion paper, in which the binding energy of a circular-orbit non-spinning compact binary system is computed at leading-order beyond the test-particle approximation, the exact expression of the effective-one-body (EOB) metric component g^eff_tt is obtained through first order in the mass ratio. Combining these results with the recent gravitational self-force calculation of the periastron advance for circular orbits in the Schwarzschild geometry, the EOB metric component g^eff_rr is also determined at linear order in the mass ratio. These results assume that the mapping between the real and effective Hamiltonians at the second and third post-Newtonian (PN) orders holds at all PN orders. Our findings also confirm the advantage of resumming the PN dynamics around the test-particle limit if the goal is to obtain a flexible model that can smoothly connect the test-mass and equal-mass limits.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; appendix generalized to include the logarithmic contributions in the post-Newtonian Hamiltonian. Results unchanged. Matches version to be published in Phys. Rev.

First Law of Mechanics for Black Hole Binaries with Spins

We use the canonical Hamiltonian formalism to generalize to spinning point particles the first law of mechanics established for binary systems of non-spinning point masses moving on circular orbits [Le Tiec, Blanchet, and Whiting, Phys. Rev. D 85, 064039 (2012)]. We find that the redshift observable of each particle is related in a very simple manner to the canonical Hamiltonian and, more generally, to a class of Fokker-type Hamiltonians. Our results are valid through linear order in the spin of each particle, but hold also for quadratic couplings between the spins of different particles. The knowledge of spin effects in the Hamiltonian allows us to compute spin-orbit terms in the redshift variable through 2.5PN order, for circular orbits and spins aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. To describe extended bodies such as black holes, we supplement the first law for spinning point-particle binaries with some "constitutive relations" that can be used for diagnosis of spin measurements in quasi-equilibrium initial data.Comment: 16 pages; matches the published versio

Multipolar Particles in Helically Symmetric Spacetimes

We consider a binary system of spinning compact objects with internal structure, moving along an exactly circular orbit, and modelled within the multipolar gravitational skeleton formalism, up to quadrupolar order. We prove that the worldline of each multipolar particle is an integral curve of the helical Killing vector field, and that the 4-velocity, 4-momentum, spin tensor and quadrupole tensor of each particle are Lie-dragged along those worldlines. The geometrical framework developed in this paper paves the way to an extension of the first law of compact-object binary mechanics up to quadrupolar order.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figure