General relativity and the spiral of compact binary stars

TL;DR

This paper discusses how general relativity, verified through solar system tests and binary pulsar observations, is used to predict gravitational waveforms from inspiraling neutron star and black hole binaries, aiding detection efforts.

Contribution

It highlights the application of high-order post-Newtonian approximations in modeling gravitational waves for binary systems.

Findings

Validation of general relativity through pulsar radiation

Use of post-Newtonian templates in gravitational wave detection

Enhanced accuracy in waveform predictions

Abstract

The theory of general relativity, which is extremely well verified by classic tests in the solar system as well as by the radiation of the binary pulsar, is one of the fundamental tools of nowadays astrophysics. It permits the computation of the gravitational wave form emitted during the inspiral phase of binary systems of neutron stars and black holes. Based on the so-called post-Newtonian approximation (developped to high order), the prediction of general relativity is used as a "template" for searching and analysing the signals in the network of gravitational-wave detectors VIRGO/LIGO.