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arXiv · 1309.0541

Periastron Advance in Spinning Black Hole Binaries: Gravitational Self-Force from Numerical Relativity

Alexandre Le Tiec·Alessandra Buonanno·Abdul H. Mroué·Harald P. Pfeiffer·Daniel A. Hemberger·Geoffrey Lovelace·Lawrence E. Kidder·Mark A. Scheel·Bela Szilágyi·Nicholas W. Taylor·Saul A. Teukolsky
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Abstract

We study the general relativistic periastron advance in spinning black hole binaries on quasi-circular orbits, with spins aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum, using numerical-relativity simulations, the post-Newtonian approximation, and black hole perturbation theory. By imposing a symmetry by exchange of the bodies' labels, we devise an improved version of the perturbative result, and use it as the leading term of a new type of expansion in powers of the symmetric mass ratio. This allows us to measure, for the first time, the gravitational self-force effect on the periastron advance of a non-spinning particle orbiting a Kerr black hole of mass M and spin S = -0.5 M^2, down to separations of order 9M. Comparing the predictions of our improved perturbative expansion with the exact results from numerical simulations of equal-mass and equal-spin binaries, we find a remarkable agreement over a wide range of spins and orbital separations.

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Alexandre Le Tiec, Alessandra Buonanno, Abdul H. Mroué, Harald P. Pfeiffer, Daniel A. Hemberger, Geoffrey Lovelace, Lawrence E. Kidder, Mark A. Scheel, Bela Szilágyi, Nicholas W. Taylor, Saul A. Teukolsky. 2013-11-29. Periastron Advance in Spinning Black Hole Binaries: Gravitational Self-Force from Numerical Relativity. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.88.124027

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