Spin effects on gravitational waves from inspiraling compact binaries at second post-Newtonian order

TL;DR

This paper derives detailed gravitational waveforms for spinning, precessing compact binaries at second post-Newtonian order, enhancing the accuracy of models used in gravitational wave data analysis.

Contribution

It provides explicit second post-Newtonian order expressions for gravitational waveforms from spinning, precessing binaries, including polarizations and mode decompositions.

Findings

Explicit waveform expressions at second post-Newtonian order

Improved templates for gravitational wave data analysis

Potential for better agreement with numerical simulations

Abstract

We calculate the gravitational waveform for spinning, precessing compact binary inspirals through second post-Newtonian order in the amplitude. When spins are collinear with the orbital angular momentum and the orbits are quasi-circular, we further provide explicit expressions for the gravitational-wave polarizations and the decomposition into spin-weighted spherical-harmonic modes. Knowledge of the second post-Newtonian spin terms in the waveform could be used to improve the physical content of analytical templates for data analysis of compact binary inspirals and for more accurate comparisons with numerical-relativity simulations.