Chaos and Gravitational Waves

TL;DR

This paper discusses how chaos in gravitational systems affects gravitational wave signals, causing decoherence that challenges detection methods like matched filtering.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of chaos-induced decoherence on gravitational waveforms and its implications for gravitational wave detection.

Findings

Chaotic systems exhibit sensitive dependence on initial conditions in gravitational waveforms.

Decoherence occurs on a timescale related to the largest Lyapunov exponent.

Detection methods relying on waveform coherence may fail for chaotic sources.

Abstract

The gravitational waveforms of a chaotic system will exhibit sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The waveforms of nearby orbits decohere on a timescale fixed by the largest Lyapunov exponent of the orbit. The loss of coherence has important observational consequences for systems where the Lyapunov timescale is short compared to the chirp timescale. Detectors that rely on matched filtering techniques will be unable to detect gravitational waves from these systems.