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Comparing second-order gravitational self-force, numerical relativity, and effective one body waveforms from inspiralling, quasicircular, and nonspinning black hole binaries

Comparing second-order gravitational self-force, numerical relativity, and effective one body waveforms from inspiralling, quasicircular, and nonspinning black hole binaries
Comparing second-order gravitational self-force, numerical relativity, and effective one body waveforms from inspiralling, quasicircular, and nonspinning black hole binaries

We present the first systematic comparison between gravitational waveforms emitted by inspiralling, quasicircular and nonspinning black hole binaries computed with three different approaches: second-order gravitational self-force (2GSF) theory, as implemented in the 1PAT1 model; numerical relativity (NR), as implemented by the SXS collaboration; and the effective one body (EOB) formalism, as implemented in the teobresums waveform model. To compare the models we use both a standard, time-domain waveform alignment and a gauge-invariant analysis based on the dimensionless function Qω(ω)ω2/ω˙, where ω is the gravitational wave frequency. We analyze the domain of validity of the 1PAT1 model, deriving error estimates and showing that the effects of the final transition to plunge, which the model neglects, extend over a significantly larger frequency interval than one might expect. Restricting to the inspiral regime, we find that, while for mass ratios q=m1/m2≤10 teobresums is largely indistinguishable from NR, 1PAT1 has a significant dephasing ≳1 rad; conversely, for q≳100, 1PAT1 is estimated to have phase errors <0.1 rad on a large frequency interval, while teobresums develops phase differences ≳1 rad with it. Most crucially, on that same large frequency interval we find good agreement between teobresums and 1PAT1 in the intermediate regime 15≲q≲64, with <0.5 rad dephasing between them. A simple modification to the teobresums flux further improves this agreement for q≳30, reducing the dephasing to ≈0.27 rad even at q=128. While our analysis points to the need for more highly accurate, long-inspiral, NR simulations for q≳15 to precisely quantify the accuracy of EOB/2GSF waveforms, we can clearly identify the primary sources of error and routes to improvement of each model. In particular, our results pave the way for the construction of GSF-informed EOB models for both intermediate and extreme mass ratio inspirals for the next generation of gravitational wave detectors.

2470-0010
Albertini, Angelica
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Nagar, Alessandro
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Pound, Adam
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Warburton, Niels
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Wardell, Barry
16a694a9-8354-495c-aa2c-f9b733b52bc8
Durkan, Leanne
993f4b30-d4f1-4b99-a94d-7f98422a0e95
Miller, Jeremy
1dbfc87b-341d-4581-9592-8a9479be6dcd
Albertini, Angelica
4f9671dd-4da9-46d1-9bc5-1edce5e06a08
Nagar, Alessandro
d9e62c78-6014-4e10-ae04-03887bc4cc01
Pound, Adam
5aac971a-0e07-4383-aff0-a21d43103a70
Warburton, Niels
ecccd4d6-d8e7-4be4-b017-cd592c32ada6
Wardell, Barry
16a694a9-8354-495c-aa2c-f9b733b52bc8
Durkan, Leanne
993f4b30-d4f1-4b99-a94d-7f98422a0e95
Miller, Jeremy
1dbfc87b-341d-4581-9592-8a9479be6dcd

Albertini, Angelica, Nagar, Alessandro, Pound, Adam, Warburton, Niels, Wardell, Barry, Durkan, Leanne and Miller, Jeremy (2022) Comparing second-order gravitational self-force, numerical relativity, and effective one body waveforms from inspiralling, quasicircular, and nonspinning black hole binaries. Physical Review D, 106 (8), [084061]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.106.084061).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We present the first systematic comparison between gravitational waveforms emitted by inspiralling, quasicircular and nonspinning black hole binaries computed with three different approaches: second-order gravitational self-force (2GSF) theory, as implemented in the 1PAT1 model; numerical relativity (NR), as implemented by the SXS collaboration; and the effective one body (EOB) formalism, as implemented in the teobresums waveform model. To compare the models we use both a standard, time-domain waveform alignment and a gauge-invariant analysis based on the dimensionless function Qω(ω)ω2/ω˙, where ω is the gravitational wave frequency. We analyze the domain of validity of the 1PAT1 model, deriving error estimates and showing that the effects of the final transition to plunge, which the model neglects, extend over a significantly larger frequency interval than one might expect. Restricting to the inspiral regime, we find that, while for mass ratios q=m1/m2≤10 teobresums is largely indistinguishable from NR, 1PAT1 has a significant dephasing ≳1 rad; conversely, for q≳100, 1PAT1 is estimated to have phase errors <0.1 rad on a large frequency interval, while teobresums develops phase differences ≳1 rad with it. Most crucially, on that same large frequency interval we find good agreement between teobresums and 1PAT1 in the intermediate regime 15≲q≲64, with <0.5 rad dephasing between them. A simple modification to the teobresums flux further improves this agreement for q≳30, reducing the dephasing to ≈0.27 rad even at q=128. While our analysis points to the need for more highly accurate, long-inspiral, NR simulations for q≳15 to precisely quantify the accuracy of EOB/2GSF waveforms, we can clearly identify the primary sources of error and routes to improvement of each model. In particular, our results pave the way for the construction of GSF-informed EOB models for both intermediate and extreme mass ratio inspirals for the next generation of gravitational wave detectors.

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FluxComparisonEOB_GSF - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 28 October 2022
Published date: 31 October 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: We are grateful to Rossella Gamba for critical observations and comments on the manuscript. We thank J. Yoo, V. Varma, M. Giesler, M. Scheel, C. Haster, H. Pfeiffer, L. Kidder, and M. Boyle for sharing with us the waveform of Ref. before having it available through the SXS catalog. A. A. has been supported by the fellowship Lumina Quaeruntur No. LQ100032102 of the Czech Academy of Sciences. A. P. acknowledges the support of a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. N. W. acknowledges support from a Royal Society—Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellowship via Grants No. UF160093 and No. RGF\R1\180022. This work makes use of the Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit and Simulation Tools . Publisher Copyright: © 2022 American Physical Society.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 472285
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/472285
ISSN: 2470-0010
PURE UUID: 6cb4375e-f5db-4c29-8e37-c3c1f82ba13e
ORCID for Adam Pound: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9446-0638

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Date deposited: 30 Nov 2022 17:46
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:27

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Contributors

Author: Angelica Albertini
Author: Alessandro Nagar
Author: Adam Pound ORCID iD
Author: Niels Warburton
Author: Barry Wardell
Author: Leanne Durkan
Author: Jeremy Miller

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