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arXiv · 1004.4697

Measuring orbital eccentricity and periastron advance in quasi-circular black hole simulations

Abdul H. Mroué·Harald P. Pfeiffer·Lawrence E. Kidder·Saul A. Teukolsky
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Abstract

We compare different methods of computing the orbital eccentricity of quasi-circular binary black hole systems using the orbital variables and gravitational wave phase and frequency. For eccentricities of about a per cent, most methods work satisfactorily. For small eccentricity, however, the gravitational wave phase allows a particularly clean and reliable measurement of the eccentricity. Furthermore, we measure the decay of the orbital eccentricity during the inspiral and find reasonable agreement with post-Newtonian results. Finally, we measure the periastron advance of non-spinning binary black holes, and we compare them to post-Newtonian approximations. With the low uncertainty in the measurement of the periastron advance, we positively detect deviations between fully numerical simulations and post-Newtonian calculations.

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Abdul H. Mroué, Harald P. Pfeiffer, Lawrence E. Kidder, Saul A. Teukolsky. 2010-04-27. Measuring orbital eccentricity and periastron advance in quasi-circular black hole simulations. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.82.124016

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