The General Relativistic Two Body Problem and the Effective One Body Formalism

TL;DR

The paper reviews the Effective One Body (EOB) formalism, an analytical method for modeling binary systems' dynamics and radiation, demonstrating its accuracy and usefulness in gravitational wave research.

Contribution

It summarizes recent developments and validation of the EOB formalism, highlighting its ability to accurately describe complex binary interactions in regimes inaccessible to other methods.

Findings

EOB predictions match Numerical Relativity simulations well.

EOB effectively models last orbits and mergers of black hole binaries.

EOB combined with other methods can generate accurate gravitational wave templates.

Abstract

A new analytical approach to the motion and radiation of (comparable mass) binary systems has been introduced in 1999 under the name of Effective One Body (EOB) formalism. We review the basic elements of this formalism, and discuss some of its recent developments. Several recent comparisons between EOB predictions and Numerical Relativity (NR) simulations have shown the aptitude of the EOB formalism to provide accurate descriptions of the dynamics and radiation of various binary systems (comprising black holes or neutron stars) in regimes that are inaccessible to other analytical approaches (such as the last orbits and the merger of comparable mass black holes). In synergy with NR simulations, post-Newtonian (PN) theory and Gravitational Self-Force (GSF) computations, the EOB formalism is likely to provide an efficient way of computing the very many accurate template waveforms that are needed for Gravitational Wave (GW) data analysis purposes.