Gravitational-wave energy flux for compact binaries through second order in the mass ratio

Warburton, Niels, Pound, Adam, Wardell, Barry, Miller, Jeremy and Durkan, Leanne (2021) Gravitational-wave energy flux for compact binaries through second order in the mass ratio. Physical Review Letters, 127 (15), [151102]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.151102).

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Abstract

Within the framework of self-force theory, we compute the gravitational-wave energy flux through second order in the mass ratio for compact binaries in quasicircular orbits. Our results are consistent with post-Newtonian calculations in the weak field, and they agree remarkably well with numerical-relativity simulations of comparable-mass binaries in the strong field. We also find good agreement for binaries with a spinning secondary or a slowly spinning primary. Our results are key for accurately modeling extreme-mass-ratio inspirals and will be useful in modeling intermediate-mass-ratio systems.

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Accepted/In Press date: 7 September 2021

e-pub ahead of print date: 8 October 2021

Published date: 8 October 2021

Additional Information: Funding Information: Royal Society Science Foundation Ireland National Science Foundation Funding Information: We thank Alexandre Le Tiec and Alessandro Nagar for helpful conversations. A. P. acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, a Royal Society Research Fellows Enhancement Award, and a Royal Society Research Grant for Research Fellows. N. W. gratefully acknowledges support from a Royal Society—Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1417132. This work makes use of the Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit and Simulation Tools . Publisher Copyright: © 2021 American Physical Society