Transition from inspiral to plunge in binary black hole coalescences

TL;DR

This paper models the transition from inspiral to plunge in binary black hole mergers using advanced techniques, providing initial data and gravitational wave estimates for numerical relativity and data analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a non-perturbative approach to describe the inspiral-plunge transition, offering new initial data and waveform estimates for comparable-mass black hole binaries.

Findings

Provides initial dynamical data for simulations

Offers gravitational waveform estimates for all phases

Describes a non-perturbative method for transition modeling

Abstract

Combining recent techniques giving non-perturbative re-summed estimates of the damping and conservative parts of the two-body dynamics, we describe the transition between the adiabatic phase and the plunge, in coalescing binary black holes with comparable masses moving on quasi-circular orbits. We give initial dynamical data for numerical relativity investigations, with a fraction of an orbit left, and provide, for data analysis purposes, an estimate of the gravitational wave-form emitted throughout the inspiral, plunge and coalescence phases.