Coalescing Binary Systems of Compact Objects: Spin Effects and the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit

Details Coalescing Binary Systems of Compact Objects: Spin Effects and the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit Coalescing Binary Systems of Compact Objects: Spin Effects and the Innermost Stable Circular Orbit

Jan 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994phdt........22k&link_type=abstract

PhD Dissertation, Washington Univ. Saint Louis, MO United States

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Coalescing, Binary Stars, Space-Time Functions, Circular Orbits, Black Holes (Astronomy), Templates, Neutron Stars, Interferometry, Gravitational Waves, Relativity, Mass Ratios

Scientific paper

Two issues related to the late-time evolution of a coalescing binary system of compact objects such as neutron stars or black holes are studied using a post-Newtonian approximation to general relativity: the effects of the spins of the bodies on the inspiral of the coalescing system and on the gravitational radiation emitted therefrom; and the transition of the orbit from an inspiral to a plunge. These issues are important since coalescing binary systems are among the most promising sources of gravitational radiation which could be detected by a laser interferometric gravitational wave observatory (LIGO). The contributions due to the spins of the bodies to the radiative multipole moments used to calculate the gravitational waveform are found. The effect of the spins on the orbital evolution is studied using relevant equations of motion. The spins of the bodies affect the gravitational waveform in several ways: (1) Spin terms contribute to the orbital decay of the binary, and thus to the accumulated phase of the gravitational waveform. (2) Spins cause the orbital plane to precess, modulating the shape of the waveform. (3) Spins contribute directly to the amplitude of the waveform. We find that spin-orbit effects on the phase are important and potentially observable by LIGO, while spin-spin effects are probably too small to be important. We provide for the first time analytic formulae which include spin effects that can be used in constructing templates to be used in matched filtering of data from LIGO-type detectors. During the late-time evolution of the binary, the orbit undergoes a transition from an adiabatic inspiral due to gravitational radiation to a plunge due to strong spacetime curvature. The transition is found to be related to the existence of an innermost stable circular orbit analogous to the innermost stable circular orbit of a test particle orbiting a black hole. The location of the innermost stable circular orbit is found for binary systems as a function of mass ratio, using a modified form of the post-Newtonian equations of motion.

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