Effective-one-body Model Research Articles

2.5PN accurate waveform information for generic-planar-orbit binaries in effective one-body models

2.5PN accurate waveform information for generic-planar-orbit binaries in effective one-body models

Resonant tides in binary neutron star mergers: Analytical-numerical relativity study

Resonant excitations of $f$-modes in binary neutron star coalescences influence the gravitational waves (GWs) emission in both quasicircular and highly eccentric mergers and can deliver information on the star interior. Most models of resonant tides are built using approximate, perturbative approaches and thus require to be carefully validated against numerical relativity (NR) simulations in the high-frequency regime. We perform detailed comparisons between a set of high-resolution NR simulations and the state of the art effective one body (EOB) model ${\tt TEOBResumS}$ with various tidal potentials and including a model for resonant tides. For circular mergers, we find that $f$-mode resonances can improve the agreement between EOB and NR, but there is no clear evidence that the tidal enhancement after contact is due to a resonant mechanism. Tidal models with $f$-mode resonances do not consistently reproduce, at the same time, the NR waveforms and the energetics within the errors, and their performances is comparable to resummed tidal models without resonances. For highly eccentric mergers, we show for the first time that our EOB model reproduces the bursty NR waveform to a high degree of accuracy. However, the considered resonant model does not capture the $f$-mode oscillations excited during the encounters and present in the NR waveform. Finally, we analyze GW170817 with both adiabatic and dynamical tides models and find that the data shows no evidence in favor of models including dynamical tides. This is in agreement with the fact that resonant tides are measured at very high frequencies, which are not available for GW170817 but might be tested with next generation detectors.

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, quasi-circular 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 $Q_\omega(\omega)\equiv \omega^2/\dot{\omega}$, where $\omega$ is the gravitational wave frequency. We analyse 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 $q = m_1/m_2\le 10$ TEOBResumS is largely indistinguishable from NR, 1PAT1 has a significant dephasing $\gtrsim 1$rad; conversely, for $q\gtrsim 100$, 1PAT1 is estimated to have phase errors $<0.1$rad on a large frequency interval, while TEOBResumS develops phase differences $\gtrsim1$rad with it. Most crucially, on that same large frequency interval we find good agreement between TEOBResumS and 1PAT1 in the intermediate regime $15\lesssim q\lesssim 64$, with $<0.5$rad dephasing between them. A simple modification to the TEOBResumS flux further improves this agreement for $q\gtrsim 30$, reducing the dephasing to $\approx0.27$rad even at $q=128$. 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.

Numerical-relativity validation of effective-one-body waveforms in the intermediate-mass-ratio regime

One of the open problems in developing binary black hole (BBH) waveforms for gravitational wave astronomy is to model the intermediate mass ratio regime and connect it to the extreme mass ratio regime. A natural approach is to employ the effective one body (EOB) approach to the two-body dynamics that, by design, can cover the entire mass ratio range and naturally incorporates the extreme mass ratio limit. Here we use recently obtained numerical relativity (NR) data with mass ratios $m_1/m_2=(7,15,\,32,\,64,\,128)$ to test the accuracy of the state-of-the-art EOB model TEOBResumS in the intermediate mass ratio regime. We generally find an excellent EOB/NR consistency around merger and ringdown for all mass ratios and for all available subdominant multipoles, except for the $\ell=m=5$ one. This mode can be crucially improved using the new large-mass ratio NR data of this paper. The EOB/NR inspirals are also consistent with the estimated NR uncertainties. We also use several NR datasets taken by different public catalogs to probe the universal behavior of the multipolar hierarchy of waveform amplitudes at merger, that smoothly connects the equal-mass BBH to the test-mass result. Interestingly, the universal behavior is strengthened if the nonoscillatory memory contribution is included in the NR waveform. Future NR simulations with improved accuracy will be necessary to further probe, and possibly quantitatively refine, the TEOBResumS transition from late inspiral to plunge in the intermediate mass ratio regime.

Assessment of effective-one-body radiation reactions for generic planar orbits

In this paper we assess the performances of different analytical prescriptions for the effective-one-body (EOB) radiation reaction along generic planar orbits using exact numerical result in the test-mass limit. We consider three prescriptions put forward in the recent literature: (i) the quasicircular prescription (QC), (ii) the QC with second post-Newtonian (2PN) order noncircular corrections (QC2PN), and (iii) the QC corrected by the noncircular Newtonian prefactor (NCN). The analytical fluxes are then compared against the exact fluxes that are computed by solving the Teukolsky equation with a test-mass source in geodesic motion. We find that the NCN prescription is the most accurate for both eccentric and hyperbolic orbits and it is in robust agreement also for large values of the eccentricity. This result carries over to the comparable masses, as we discuss for a numerical-relativity (NR) case study. We also demonstrate that, while the EOB/NR waveform unfaithfulness is a necessary check for the precision of EOB models, the direct comparison of EOB/NR fluxes is a more stringent and informative test to select the best prescription. Finally, we propose an improved radiation reaction, NCN2PN, that includes noncircular 2PN corrections, in resummed form, as a further multiplicative contribution and that is valid for any mass ratio.

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

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.

Effective one-body model for extreme-mass-ratio spinning binaries on eccentric equatorial orbits: Testing radiation reaction and waveform

We provide a systematic analysis of the multipolar gravitational waveform, energy and angular momentum fluxes emitted by a nonspinning test particle orbiting a Kerr black hole along equatorial, eccentric orbits. These quantities are computed by numerically solving the Teukolsky equation in the time domain and are then used to test and improve the radiation reaction (and waveform) of an effective-one-body (EOB) model. Eccentricity is incorporated into EOB by replacing the quasi-circular Newtonian (or leading-order) prefactors in the EOB-factorized multipolar waveform (and fluxes) with their generic counterparts. The comparison between numerical and analytical quantities is carried out over a large portion of the parameter space, notably for orbits close to the separatrix and with high eccentricities. The analytical model agrees to $\sim 1\%$ with the numerical data for orbits with moderate eccentricities ($e\lesssim 0.3$) and moderate spins ($\hat{a}\lesssim 0.5$), although this increases up to $\sim 33\%$ for large, positive, black hole spins ($\sim 0.9$) and large eccentricities ($\sim 0.9$). For moderate eccentricities, the new EOB fluxes can be used to drive the dynamics through the nonadiabatic transition from eccentric inspiral to plunge, merger and ringdown, thus providing accurate an description of the merger. We also show that the same technique can be applied to hyperbolic encounters. In general, our approach to radiation reaction for eccentric inspirals should be seen as a first step toward EOB modelization of extreme-mass-ratio-inspirals waveforms for LISA.

Radiation-reaction force and multipolar waveforms for eccentric, spin-aligned binaries in the effective-one-body formalism

While most binary inspirals are expected to have circularized before they enter the LIGO/Virgo frequency band, a small fraction of those binaries could have non-negligible orbital eccentricity depending on their formation channel. Hence, it is important to accurately model eccentricity effects in waveform models used to detect those binaries, infer their properties, and shed light on their astrophysical environment. We develop a multipolar effective-one-body (EOB) eccentric waveform model for compact binaries whose components have spins aligned or antialigned with the orbital angular momentum. The waveform model contains eccentricity effects in the radiation-reaction force and gravitational modes through second post-Newtonian (PN) order, including tail effects, and spin-orbit and spin-spin couplings. We recast the PN-expanded, eccentric radiation-reaction force and modes in factorized form so that the newly derived terms can be directly included in the state-of-the-art, quasi-circular--orbit EOB model currently used in LIGO/Virgo analyses (i.e., the SEOBNRv4HM model).

Quasicircular inspirals and plunges from nonspinning effective-one-body Hamiltonians with gravitational self-force information

The self-force program aims at accurately modeling relativistic two-body systems with a small mass ratio (SMR). In the context of the effective-one-body (EOB) framework, current results from this program can be used to determine the effective metric components at linear order in the mass ratio, resumming post-Newtonian (PN) dynamics around the test-particle limit in the process. It was shown in [Akcay et al., Phys. Rev. D 86 (2012)] that, in the original (standard) EOB gauge, the SMR contribution to the metric component $g^\text{eff}_{tt}$ exhibits a coordinate singularity at the light-ring (LR) radius. In this paper, we adopt a different gauge for the EOB dynamics and obtain a Hamiltonian that is free of poles at the LR, with complete circular-orbit information at linear order in the mass ratio and non-circular-orbit and higher-order-in-mass-ratio terms up to 3PN order. We confirm the absence of the LR-divergence in such an EOB Hamiltonian via plunging trajectories through the LR radius. Moreover, we compare the binding energies and inspiral waveforms of EOB models with SMR, PN and mixed SMR-3PN information on a quasi-circular inspiral against numerical-relativity predictions. We find good agreement between NR simulations and EOB models with SMR-3PN information for both equal and unequal mass ratios. In particular, when compared to EOB inspiral waveforms with only 3PN information, EOB Hamiltonians with SMR-3PN information improves the modeling of binary systems with small mass ratios $q \lesssim 1/3$, with a dephasing accumulated in $\sim$30 gravitational-wave (GW) cycles being of the order of few hundredths of a radian up to 4 GW cycles before merger.

Effective approach to impurity dynamics in one-dimensional trapped Bose gases

We investigate a temporal evolution of an impurity atom in a one-dimensional trapped Bose gas following a sudden change of the boson-impurity interaction strength. Our focus is on the effects of inhomogeneity due to the harmonic confinement. These effects can be described by an effective one-body model where both the mass and the spring constant are renormalized. This is in contrast to the classic renormalization, which addresses only the mass. We propose an effective single-particle Hamiltonian and apply the multilayer multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method for bosons to explore its validity. Numerical results suggest that the effective mass is smaller than the impurity mass, which means that it cannot straightforwardly be extracted from translationally invariant models.

Efficient effective one body time-domain gravitational waveforms

Computationally efficient waveforms are of central importance for gravitational wave data analysis of inspiralling and coalescing compact binaries. We show that the post-adiabatic (PA) approximation to the effective-one-body (EOB) description of the binary dynamics, when pushed to high-order, allows one to accurately and efficiently compute the waveform of coalescing binary neutron stars (BNSs) or black holes (BBHs) up to a few orbits before merger. This is accomplished bypassing the usual need of numerically solving the relative EOB dynamics described by a set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Under the assumption that radiation reaction is small, the Hamilton's equations for the momenta can be solved {\it analytically} for given values of the relative separation. Time and orbital phase are then recovered by simple numerical quadratures. For the least-adiabatic BBH case, equal-mass, quasi-extremal spins anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum, 6PA/8PA orders are able to generate waveforms that accumulate less than $10^{-3}$ rad of phase difference with respect to the complete EOB ones up to $\sim 3$ orbits before merger. Analogous results hold for BNSs. The PA waveform generation is extremely efficient: for a standard BNS system from 10Hz, a nonoptimized Matlab implementation of the TEOBResumS EOB model in the PA approximation is more than 100 times faster ($\sim 0.09$ sec) than the corresponding $C^{++}$ code based on a standard ODE solver. Once optimized further, our approach will allow to: (i) avoid the use of the fast, but often inaccurate, post-Newtonian inspiral waveforms, drastically reducing the impact of systematics due to inspiral waveform modelling; (ii) alleviate the need of constructing EOB waveform surrogates to be used in parameter estimation codes.

Comprehensive comparison of numerical relativity and effective-one-body results to inform improvements in waveform models for binary neutron star systems

We present a detailed comparison between tidal effective-one-body (EOB) models and new state-of-the-art numerical relativity simulations for non-spinning binary neutron star systems. This comparison is the most extensive one to date, covering a wide range in the parameter space and encompassing the energetics of the binary, the periastron advance, the time and frequency evolution of the gravitational wave phase for the dominant mode, and several subdominant modes. We consider different EOB models with tidal effects that have been proposed, including the model with dynamical tides of [Phys.Rev.Lett. 116 (2016) no.18, 181101] and the gravitational self-force (GSF) inspired tidal EOB model of [Phys.Rev.Lett. 114 (2015) no.16, 161103]. The EOB model with dynamical tides leads to the best representation of the systems considered here, however, the differences to the GSF-inspired model are small. A common feature is that for systems where matter effects are large, i.e. stiff equations of state or small total masses, all EOB models underestimate the tidal effects and differences to the results from numerical relativity simulations become noticeable near the merger. We analyze this regime to diagnose the shortcomings of the models in the late inspiral, where the two neutron stars are no longer isolated bodies moving in vacuum. Our work will serve to guide further advances in modeling these systems.

Spin–orbit precession for eccentric black hole binaries at first order in the mass ratio

We consider spin–orbit (‘geodetic’) precession for a compact binary in strong-field gravity. Specifically, we compute ψ, the ratio of the accumulated spin-precession and orbital angles over one radial period, for a spinning compact body of mass m1 and spin s1, with , orbiting a non-rotating black hole. We show that ψ can be computed for eccentric orbits in both the gravitational self-force and post-Newtonian frameworks, and that the results appear to be consistent. We present a post-Newtonian expansion for ψ at next-to-next-to-leading order, and a Lorenz-gauge gravitational self-force calculation for ψ at first order in the mass ratio. The latter provides new numerical data in the strong-field regime to inform the effective one-body model of the gravitational two-body problem. We conclude that ψ complements the Detweiler redshift z as a key invariant quantity characterizing eccentric orbits in the gravitational two-body problem.

Energetics and phasing of nonprecessing spinning coalescing black hole binaries

We present an improved numerical relativity (NR) calibration of the new effective-one-body (EOB) model for coalescing non precessing spinning black hole binaries recently introduced by Damour and Nagar [Physical Review D 90, 044018 (2014)]. We do so by comparing the EOB predictions to both the phasing and the energetics provided by two independent sets of NR data covering mass ratios $1\leq q \leq 9.989$ and dimensionless spin range $-0.95\leq \chi\leq +0.994$. One set of data is a subset of the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) catalog of public waveforms; the other set consists of new simulations obtained with the Llama code plus Cauchy Characteristic Evolution. We present the first systematic computation of the gauge-invariant relation between the binding energy and the total angular momentum, $E_{b}(j)$, for a large sample of, spin-aligned, SXS and Llama data. The dynamics of the EOB model presented here involves only two free functional parameters, one ($a_6^c(\nu)$) entering the non spinning sector, as a 5PN effective correction to the interaction potential, and one ($c_3(\tilde{a}_1,\tilde{a}_2,\nu))$ in the spinning sector, as an effective next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order correction to the spin-orbit coupling. These parameters are determined (together with a third functional parameter $\Delta t_{\rm NQC}(\chi)$ entering the waveform) by comparing the EOB phasing with the SXS phasing, the consistency of the energetics being checked afterwards. The quality of the analytical model for gravitational wave data analysis purposes is assessed by computing the EOB/NR faithfulness. Over the NR data sample and when varying the total mass between 20 and 200~$M_\odot$ the EOB/NR unfaithfulness (integrated over the NR frequency range) is found to vary between $99.493\%$ and $99.984\%$ with a median value of $99.944\%$.

Octupolar invariants for compact binaries on quasicircular orbits

We extend the gravitational self-force methodology to identify and compute new $O(\mu)$ tidal invariants for a compact body of mass $\mu$ on a quasi-circular orbit about a black hole of mass $M \gg \mu$. In the octupolar sector we find seven new degrees of freedom, made up of 3+3 conservative/dissipative `electric' invariants and 3+1 `magnetic' invariants, satisfying 1+1 and 1+0 trace conditions. After formulating for equatorial circular orbits on Kerr spacetime, we calculate explicitly for Schwarzschild spacetime. We employ both Lorenz gauge and Regge-Wheeler gauge numerical codes, and the functional series method of Mano, Suzuki and Takasugi. We present (i) highly-accurate numerical data and (ii) high-order analytical post-Newtonian expansions. We demonstrate consistency between numerical and analytic results, and prior work. We explore the application of these invariants in effective one-body models, and binary black hole initial-data formulations, and conclude with a discussion of future work.

New effective-one-body Hamiltonian with next-to-leading order spin-spin coupling

We present a new effective-one-body (EOB) Hamiltonian with next-to-leading order (NLO) spin-spin coupling for black hole binaries endowed with arbitrarily oriented spins. The Hamiltonian is based on the model for parallel spins and equatorial orbits developed in [Physical Review D 90, 044018 (2014)], but differs from it in several ways. In particular, the NLO spin-spin coupling is not incorporated by a redefinition of the centrifugal radius $r_c$, but by separately modifying certain sectors of the Hamiltonian, which are identified according to their dependence on the momentum vector. The gauge-fixing procedure we follow allows us to reduce the 25 different terms of the NLO spin-spin Hamiltonian in Arnowitt-Deser-Misner coordinates to only 9 EOB terms. This is an improvement with respect to the EOB model recently proposed in [Physical Review D 91, 064011 (2015)], where 12 EOB terms were involved. Another important advantage is the remarkably simple momentum structure of the spin-spin terms in the effective Hamiltonian, which is simply quadratic up to an overall square root. Moreover, a Damour-Jaranowski-Sch\"afer-type gauge could be established, thus allowing one to concentrate, in the case of circular and equatorial orbits, the whole spin-spin interaction in a single radial potential.

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.

Tidal invariants for compact binaries on quasicircular orbits

We extend the gravitational self-force approach to encompass ``self-interaction'' tidal effects for a compact body of mass $\ensuremath{\mu}$ on a quasicircular orbit around a black hole of mass $M\ensuremath{\gg}\ensuremath{\mu}$. Specifically, we define and calculate at $O(\ensuremath{\mu})$ (conservative) shifts in the eigenvalues of the electric- and magnetic-type tidal tensors, and a (dissipative) shift in a scalar product between their eigenbases. This approach yields four gauge-invariant functions, from which one may construct other tidal quantities such as the curvature scalars and the speciality index. First, we analyze the general case of a geodesic in a regular perturbed vacuum spacetime admitting a helical Killing vector and a reflection symmetry. Next, we specialize to focus on circular orbits in the equatorial plane of Kerr spacetime at $O(\ensuremath{\mu})$. We present accurate numerical results for the Schwarzschild case for orbital radii up to the light ring, calculated via independent implementations in Lorenz and Regge-Wheeler gauges. We show that our results are consistent with leading-order post-Newtonian expansions, and demonstrate the existence of additional structure in the strong-field regime. We anticipate that our strong-field results will inform (e.g.) effective one-body models for the gravitational two-body problem that are invaluable in the ongoing search for gravitational waves.

Gravitational self-force correction to the innermost stable circular equatorial orbit of a Kerr black hole.

For a self-gravitating particle of mass μ in orbit around a Kerr black hole of mass M ≫ μ, we compute the O(μ/M) shift in the frequency of the innermost stable circular equatorial orbit due to the conservative piece of the gravitational self-force acting on the particle. Our treatment is based on a Hamiltonian formulation of the dynamics in terms of geodesic motion in a certain locally defined effective smooth spacetime. We recover the same result using the so-called first law of binary black-hole mechanics. We give numerical results for the innermost stable circular equatorial orbit frequency shift as a function of the black hole's spin amplitude, and compare with predictions based on the post-Newtonian approximation and the effective one-body model. Our results provide an accurate strong-field benchmark for spin effects in the general-relativistic two-body problem.

New effective-one-body description of coalescing nonprecessing spinning black-hole binaries

We present a new, tunable effective-one-body (EOB) model of the motion and radiation of coalescing black hole binaries with arbitrary mass ratio and aligned spins. The most novel feature of our formalism is the introduction, and systematic use, of the (gauge-invariant) concept of {\it centrifugal radius} $r_{c}$. In the spinning small mass-ratio limit, the main radial potential expressed in terms of $r_{c}$ differs very little (and only multiplicatively so) from the usual Schwarzschild potential $1-2M/r_{c}$. This motivates a new, multiplicative way of blending finite-mass-ratio deformations with spin-deformations. In the present exploratory work we consider a minimal version of our spinning EOB model (containing essentially only two adjustable parameters: one in the Hamiltonian and one in the waveform) and calibrate its (dominant mode) waveform against a sample of fifteen equal-mass, equal-spin waveforms produced by the SXS collaboration, and covering the dimensionless spin range $-0.95\leq \chi \leq +0.98$. The numerical relativity / EOB phasing disagreement remains remarkably small ($\lesssim \pm 0.15$ rad) over the entire spin range.