Radiation reaction at 3.5 post-Newtonian order in effective field theory

TL;DR

This paper derives the gravitational radiation reaction forces for compact binary inspirals at 3.5 post-Newtonian order using effective field theory, confirming previous results and extending the equations of motion.

Contribution

It introduces a Hamilton's variational principle for dissipative systems within effective field theory, nearly completing the 3.5PN equations of motion for spinning binaries.

Findings

Agreement with previous radiation reaction results

Extension of equations of motion to 3.5PN order

Confirmation of the extended variational principle

Abstract

We derive the radiation reaction forces on a compact binary inspiral through 3.5 order in the post-Newtonian expansion using the effective field theory approach. We utilize a recent formulation of Hamilton's variational principle that rigorously extends the usual Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms to dissipative systems, including the inspiral of a compact binary from the emission of gravitational waves. We find agreement with previous results, which thus provides a non-trivial confirmation of the extended variational principle. The results from this work nearly complete the equations of motion for the generic inspiral of a compact binary with spinning constituents through 3.5 post-Newtonian order, as derived entirely with effective field theory, with only the spin-orbit corrections to the potential at 3.5 post-Newtonian remaining.