Gravitational wave snapshots of generic extreme mass ratio inspirals

TL;DR

This paper calculates gravitational waveforms from generic extreme mass ratio inspirals around rotating black holes using perturbation theory, focusing on waveform features and energy fluxes for future waveform modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a method to compute gravitational waves from eccentric, inclined orbits around rotating black holes, including flux calculations for evolving inspirals.

Findings

Radial voice often dominates waveform signals

Computed energy and angular momentum fluxes at infinity and horizon

Framework for adiabatic evolution of generic orbits

Abstract

Using black hole perturbation theory, we calculate the gravitational waves produced by test particles moving on bound geodesic orbits about rotating black holes. The orbits we consider are generic - simultaneously eccentric and inclined. The waves can be described as having radial, polar, and azimuthal "voices", each of which can be made to dominate by varying eccentricity and inclination. Although each voice is generally apparent in the waveform, the radial voice is prone to overpowering the others. We also compute the radiative fluxes of energy and axial angular momentum at infinity and through the event horizon. These fluxes, coupled to a prescription for the radiative evolution of the Carter constant, will be used in future work to adiabatically evolve through a sequence of generic orbits. This will enable the calculation of inspiral waveforms that, while lacking certain important features, will approximate those expected from astrophysical extreme mass ratio captures sufficiently well to aid development of measurement algorithms on a relatively short timescale.