MG13 proceedings: On the validity of the adiabatic approximation in compact binary inspirals

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the validity of the adiabatic approximation in modeling tidal effects during compact binary inspirals, using a post-Newtonian-Affine model to quantify phase corrections in gravitational waves.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of tidal tensor evolution at 2 PN order and assesses the impact on gravitational wave phase modeling, highlighting limitations of the adiabatic approximation.

Findings

Tidal deformability increases in the last inspiral phases.

Phase corrections due to tidal effects can affect gravitational wave detection.

The adiabatic approximation's validity varies during inspiral.

Abstract

We use the post-Newtonian-Affine model to assess the validity of the adiabatic approximation in modeling tidal effects in the phase evolution of compact binary systems. We compute the dynamical evolution of the tidal tensor, which we estimate at the 2 PN order, and of the quadrupole tensor, finding that their ratio, i.e. the tidal deformability, increases in the last phases of the inspiral. We derive the gravitational wave phase corrections due to this phenomenon and quantify how they affect gravitational wave detectability.