An improved analytical description of inspiralling and coalescing black-hole binaries

TL;DR

This paper introduces an improved analytical model within the Effective-One-Body framework that accurately predicts gravitational waves from black-hole binaries, aligning well with numerical relativity results and aiding gravitational wave detection.

Contribution

The paper presents a new analytical formalism that enhances the accuracy of gravitational wave predictions for black-hole binaries within the EOB framework, matching numerical relativity results.

Findings

Accurately predicts gravitational wave signals for various mass ratios.

Matches numerical relativity energy flux within numerical errors.

Enables construction of large, accurate gravitational wave template banks.

Abstract

We present an analytical formalism, within the Effective-One-Body framework, which predicts gravitational-wave signals from inspiralling and coalescing black-hole binaries that agree, within numerical errors, with the results of the currently most accurate numerical relativity simulations for several different mass ratios. In the equal-mass case, the gravitational wave energy flux predicted by our formalism agrees, within numerical errors, with the most accurate numerical-relativity energy flux. We think that our formalism opens a realistic possibility of constructing a sufficiently accurate, large bank of gravitational wave templates, as needed both for detection and data analysis of (non spinning) coalescing binary black holes.