A New Spin on Dissipative Tides: First-Post-Newtonian Effects in Compact Binary Inspirals

TL;DR

This paper develops a detailed post-Newtonian model of tidal dissipation effects in spinning compact binaries, revealing new phase corrections in gravitational-wave signals relevant for high-precision astrophysics.

Contribution

It introduces a next-to-leading order post-Newtonian description of dissipative tides, including spin effects, and derives their impact on gravitational-wave phase evolution.

Findings

Spin-induced tidal dissipation enters at 2.5PN order with a logarithmic frequency dependence.

The model reproduces horizon absorption effects in the extreme-mass-ratio limit.

It suggests a redshift-related correction in comparable-mass binaries not captured by some recent theories.

Abstract

Tidal dissipation in spinning compact binaries imprints characteristic corrections on the late-inspiral gravitational-wave signal. We develop a next-to-leading order post-Newtonian description of dissipative, electric-quadrupolar tides in spinning compact binaries, deriving the center-of-mass equations of motion, a generalized energy-balance law, and the corresponding Fourier-phase correction for quasi-circular orbits with spins aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. Using the most general, low-frequency, linear tidal response compatible with rotational symmetry, we show that spin-induced tidal dissipation enters the gravitational-wave phase at 2.5 post-Newtonian order and carries a logarithmic frequency dependence, so it is not degenerate with the coalescence phase. For binary black holes, our dissipative flux reproduces horizon absorption in the extreme-mass-ratio limit and points to a redshift-related correction in the comparable-mass case potentially not included in certain recent worldline effective field theory calculations. These results provide new waveform ingredients for precision modeling of spinning compact binaries in the high-signal-to-noise era.