Orbital evolution of a test particle around a black hole: higher-order corrections

TL;DR

This paper investigates the orbital evolution of a test particle around a black hole, incorporating higher-order corrections via self-force calculations, which could significantly improve the accuracy of gravitational-wave modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a perturbative method to compute higher-order corrections to orbital evolution using self-force, extending beyond conservation laws approaches.

Findings

Higher-order corrections cause measurable phase shifts in waveforms

The method improves the precision of gravitational-wave predictions

Application demonstrated in a scalar field toy model

Abstract

We study the orbital evolution of a radiation-damped binary in the extreme mass ratio limit, and the resulting waveforms, to one order beyond what can be obtained using the conservation laws approach. The equations of motion are solved perturbatively in the mass ratio (or the corresponding parameter in the scalar field toy model), using the self force, for quasi-circular orbits around a Schwarzschild black hole. This approach is applied for the scalar model. Higher-order corrections yield a phase shift which, if included, may make gravitational-wave astronomy potentially highly accurate.