Ballistic orbits in Schwarzschild space-time and gravitational waves from EMR binary mergers
Abstract
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 description for the plunge phase of compact binaries is obtained.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1406.4282,
title = {Ballistic orbits in Schwarzschild space-time and gravitational waves from EMR binary mergers},
author = {G. d'Ambrosi and J. W. van Holten},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.4282},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
20 pages, 9 figures Revised version: added clarifying remarks to introduction and summary; additional table; results and conclusions unchanged. Accepted version for Class. Quant. Grav