Self-force gravitational waveforms for extreme-and intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals

Kristen A. Lackeos (1) , Lior M. Burko (1, 2, 3)

1 Physics Department [Huntsville]
2 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
3 Department of Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics

We present the first orbit-integrated self force effects on the gravitational waveform for an intermediate (extreme) mass ratio inspiral source. We consider the quasi-circular motion of a particle in the spacetime of a Schwarzschild black hole and study the dependence of the dephasing of the corresponding gravitational waveforms due to ignoring the conservative piece of the self force. We calculate the cumulative dephasing of the waveforms and their overlap integral, and discuss the importance of the conservative piece of the self force in detection and parameter estimation. For long templates the inclusion of the conservative piece is crucial for gravitational-wave astronomy, yet may be ignored for short templates with little effect on detection rate. We then discuss the effect of the mass ratio and the start point of the motion on the dephasing.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Kristen A. Lackeos, Lior M. Burko. Self-force gravitational waveforms for extreme-and intermediate-mass-ratio inspirals. Physical Review D, 2012, 86, 084055 (10 p.). ⟨10.1103/PhysRevD.86.084055⟩. ⟨insu-01254887⟩