Post-Minkowskian Theory Meets the Spinning Effective-One-Body Approach for Bound-Orbit Waveforms

TL;DR

This paper develops a new gravitational waveform model for spinning black holes by integrating post-Minkowskian scattering data into the effective-one-body framework, improving accuracy over previous models.

Contribution

It introduces SEOBNR-PM, a novel EOB-based waveform model that incorporates PM scattering angle data, enhancing gravitational wave predictions for spinning black hole binaries.

Findings

Median mismatch with numerical relativity is lower than SEOBNRv5.

Better agreement with NR in binding energy comparisons.

Model performs well across a wide range of simulations.

Abstract

Driven by advances in scattering amplitudes and worldline-based methods, recent years have seen significant progress in our ability to calculate gravitational two-body scattering observables. These observables effectively encapsulate the gravitational two-body problem in the weak-field and high-velocity regime (post-Minkowskian, PM), with applications to the bound two-body problem and gravitational-wave modeling. We leverage PM data to construct a complete inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform model for non-precessing spinning black holes within the effective-one-body (EOB) formalism: SEOBNR-PM. This model is closely based on the highly successful SEOBNRv5 model, used by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration, with its key new feature being an EOB Hamiltonian derived by matching the two-body scattering angle in a perturbative PM expansion. The model performs remarkably well, showing a median mismatch against 441 numerical-relativity (NR) simulations that is somewhat lower than a similarly calibrated version of SEOBNRv5. Comparisons of the binding energy with NR also demonstrate better agreement than SEOBNRv5, despite the latter containing additional calibration to NR simulations.