Effective-one-body waveforms for precessing coalescing compact binaries with post-Newtonian twist

Abstract

Spin precession is a generic feature of compact binary coalescences, which leaves clear imprints in the gravitational waveforms. Building on previous work, we present an efficient time domain inspiral-merger-ringdown effective-one-body model (EOB) for precessing binary black holes, which incorporates subdominant modes beyond $\ell=2$, and the first EOB frequency domain approximant for precessing binary neutron stars. We validate our model against 99 ``short'' numerical relativity precessing waveforms, where we find median mismatches of $5\times 10^{-3}$, $7 \times 10^{-3}$ at inclinations of $0$, $\pi/3$, and 21 ``long'' waveforms with median mismatches of $4 \times 10^{-3}$ and $5 \times 10^{-3}$ at the same inclinations. Further comparisons against the state-of-the-art $\texttt{NRSur7dq4}$ waveform model yield median mismatches of $4\times 10^{-3}, 1.8 \times 10^{-2}$ at inclinations of $0, \pi/3$ for 5000 precessing configurations with the precession parameter $\chi_p$ up to 0.8 and mass ratios up to 4. To demonstrate the computational efficiency of our model we apply it to parameter estimation and re-analyze the gravitational-wave events GW150914, GW190412, and GW170817.