Self-forced gravitational waveforms for Extreme and Intermediate mass ratio inspirals

TL;DR

This paper investigates the impact of the conservative self-force on gravitational waveforms from extreme and intermediate mass ratio inspirals, highlighting its importance for accurate detection and parameter estimation in gravitational-wave astronomy.

Contribution

It presents the first orbit-integrated self-force effects on waveforms for I(E)MRI sources, emphasizing the significance of including the conservative self-force component.

Findings

Conservative self-force significantly affects waveform dephasing for long templates.

Ignoring the conservative piece can be acceptable for short templates with minimal impact.

Dephasing depends on mass ratio and initial conditions of the inspiral.

Abstract

We present the first orbit-integrated self force effects on the gravitational waveform for an I(E)MRI 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.