Self-consistent effective-one-body theory for spinless binaries based on post-Minkowskian approximation I: Hamiltonian and decoupled equation for $$\psi _4^{\rm{B}}$$

Abstract

To build a self-consistent effective-one-body (EOB) theory, in which the Hamiltonian, radiation-reaction force and waveform for the "plus" and "cross" modes of the gravitational wave should be based on the same effective background spacetime, the key step is to look for the decoupled equation for $\psi^B_{4}=\ddot{h}_{+}-i\ddot{h}_{\times}$, which seems a very difficult task because there are non-vanishing tetrad components of the tracefree Ricci tensor for such spacetime. Fortunately, based on an effective spacetime obtained in this paper by using the post-Minkowskian (PM) approximation, we find the decoupled equation for $\psi^B_{4}$ by dividing the perturbation part of the metric into the odd and even parities. With the effective metric and decoupled equation at hand, we set up a frame of self-consistent EOB model for spinless binaries.