Tail terms in gravitational radiation reaction via effective field theory

TL;DR

This paper uses effective field theory to re-derive the leading tail term in gravitational radiation reaction, confirming its form and interpretation as a renormalization group effect on the Bondi mass at the 4th post-Newtonian order.

Contribution

It introduces an EFT approach to compute the tail term in gravitational radiation reaction, extending the Lagrangian formalism to include dissipation effects and clarifying its RG interpretation.

Findings

Reproduces the known logarithmic tail term using EFT methods.

Confirms the tail term as a RG effect on the Bondi mass.

Provides a consistent framework for tail effects in binary dynamics.

Abstract

Gravitational radiation reaction affects the dynamics of gravitationally bound binary systems. Here we focus on the leading "tail" term which modifies binary dynamics at fourth post-Newtonian order, as first computed by Blanchet and Damour. We re-produce this result using effective field theory techniques in the framework of the Lagrangian formalism suitably extended to include dissipation effects. We recover the known logarithmic tail term, consistently with the recent interpretation of the logarithmic tail term in the mass parameter as a renormalization group effect of the Bondi mass of the system.