Deriving effective descriptions and signal predictions for dynamical gravitational systems

Abstract

We investigate top-down derivations of effective descriptions of radiation from gravitational systems such as binaries. With a specified cutoff prescription, one can derive worldline effective field theories, although the associated cutoff dependence can complicate their formulation. We investigate a related effective approach in which the dynamics are parameterized by an action on the boundaries of cavities enclosing the individual bodies. We present examples of such cavity descriptions for black holes and for simple models of modified black hole behavior. We also show how cavity effective descriptions connect to observable quantities including Love numbers and aspects of wave profiles, such as the accumulated phase shifts of emitted signals. A primary motivation is to develop a systematic framework for inferring how modifications of classical black hole behavior affect gravitational wave signals. Such modifications may be motivated by the requirement that black hole evolution be consistent with quantum mechanics, or by other models of new black hole behavior. Accumulated phase shifts during the inspiral have, in particular, been argued to provide sensitivity to small new effects. To illustrate the basic principles clearly, we develop the formalism primarily for scalar radiation, and then outline its extension to gravitational perturbations.