Binary black hole scattering in the extreme-mass-ratio limit: time-domain waveform

Abstract

The time-domain gravitational waveform emitted during the scattering of two nonspinning compact bodies is computed in the extreme-mass-ratio limit. It provides a time-domain description of the gravitational radiation emitted during the encounter and complements previous first-order self-force calculations, which have primarily been formulated in the frequency domain. In this way, the present results provide a complementary representation of the radiative dynamics and facilitate a direct comparison between time-domain and frequency-domain approaches to the gravitational-wave signal. The waveform is accurate to the fifth post-Minkowskian (three-loop) level and seventh post-Newtonian order, and will serve as a benchmark for future calculations by other methods, to first order in the mass ratio. The results have been already tested in a previous work by constructing the energy and angular momentum fluxes, thereby computing the corresponding radiative losses at the 5PM and 4PM level, respectively, with the same PN accuracy, which are in agreement with recent amplitude-based calculations.