Integrability of eccentric, spinning black hole binaries up to second post-Newtonian order

TL;DR

This paper investigates the integrability of eccentric, spinning binary black hole systems up to second post-Newtonian order, revealing conditions under which the system remains analytically solvable despite chaos at higher orders.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the 2PN order system is perturbatively integrable by constructing conserved quantities, extending the analytical understanding of BBH dynamics.

Findings

1. Constructed four action integrals at 1.5PN order.

2. Showed 2PN system is integrable in a perturbative sense.

3. Results are consistent with numerical chaos at higher orders.

Abstract

Accurate and efficient modeling of the dynamics of binary black holes (BBHs) is crucial to their detection and parameter estimation through gravitational waves, both with LIGO/Virgo and LISA. General BBH configurations will have misaligned spins and eccentric orbits, eccentricity being particularly relevant at early times. Modeling these systems is both analytically and numerically challenging. Even though the 1.5 post-Newtonian (PN) order is Liouville integrable, numerical work has demonstrated chaos at 2PN order, which impedes the existence of an analytic solution. In this article we revisit integrability at both 1.5PN and 2PN orders. At 1.5PN, we construct four (out of five) action integrals. At 2PN, we show that the system is indeed integrable - but in a perturbative sense - by explicitly constructing five mutually-commuting constants of motion. Because of the KAM theorem, this is consistent with the past numerical demonstration of chaos. Our method extends to higher PN orders, opening the door for a fully analytical solution to the generic eccentric, spinning BBH problem.