Ballistic orbits in Schwarzschild space-time and gravitational waves from EMR binary mergers

We describe a special class of ballistic geodesics in Schwarzschild space-time, extending to the horizon in the infinite past and future of observer time, which are characterized by the property that they are in 1-1 correspondence, and completely degenerate in energy and angular momentum, with stabl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Classical and quantum gravity 2015-01, Vol.32 (1), p.15012-15027
Main Authors: dʼAmbrosi, G, Holten, J W van
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Approximation
Binary systems (materials)
Coalescing
extreme mass ratio
Geodesy
Gravitational waves
Mathematical analysis
Orbits
Quantum gravity
Schwarzschild geometry
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Summary:We describe a special class of ballistic geodesics in Schwarzschild space-time, extending to the horizon in the infinite past and future of observer time, which are characterized by the property that they are in 1-1 correspondence, and completely degenerate in energy and angular momentum, with stable circular orbits. We derive analytic expressions for the source terms in the Regge-Wheeler and Zerilli-Moncrief equations for a point-particle moving on such a ballistic orbit, and compute the gravitational waves emitted during the infall in an extreme mass ratio black-hole binary coalescence. In this way a geodesic approximation to the plunge phase of compact binaries is obtained.
ISSN:0264-9381
1361-6382
DOI:10.1088/0264-9381/32/1/015012