Comment on "Gravity Waves, Chaos, and Spinning Compact Binaries"

TL;DR

This paper discusses how higher order effects influence chaos in spinning compact binaries and the implications for gravitational wave detection, emphasizing the need for further research to understand practical unpredictability.

Contribution

It highlights the impact of dissipational effects on chaos in spinning binaries and outlines future work needed to assess gravitational wave detection challenges.

Findings

Higher order dissipational effects reduce chaos in binary dynamics

Unpredictability may still affect gravitational wave signal analysis

Further research is needed to understand practical implications

Abstract

Levin (gr-qc/9910040) has shown that spinning compact binaries can be chaotic at second post-Newtonian order. However, when higher order dissipational effects are included, the dynamics will no longer be chaotic, though the evolution may still be unpredictable in a practical sense. I discuss some of the additional work that needs to be done to decide how this unpredictability might affect gravitational wave detectors such as LIGO.