Related papers: On the Circular Orbit Approximation for Binary Com…
Double compact objects (neutron stars and black holes) found in binaries with small orbital separations are known to spiral in and are expected to coalesce eventually because of the emission of gravitational waves. Such inspiral and merger…
This paper explores the problem of analytically approximating the orbital state for a subset of orbits in a rotating potential with oblateness and ellipticity perturbations. This is done by isolating approximate differential equations for…
We perform fully relativistic calculations of binary neutron stars in corotating, circular orbit. While Newtonian gravity allows for a strict equilibrium, a relativistic binary system emits gravitational radiation, causing the system to…
Resolving the formation channel(s) of merging binary black holes is a key goal in gravitational-wave astronomy. The orbital eccentricity is believed to be a precious tracer of the underlying formation pathway, but is largely dissipated…
This thesis details an effort to generate astrophysically interesting solutions to the two-body problem in General Relativity. The thesis consists of two main parts. The first part presents an analytical variational principle for describing…
The post-Newtonian approximation is a method for solving Einstein's field equations for physical systems in which motions are slow compared to the speed of light and where gravitational fields are weak. Yet it has proven to be remarkably…
The minimum orbital intersection distance is used as a measure to assess potential close approaches and collision risks between astronomical objects. Methods to calculate this quantity have been proposed in several previous publications.…
The construction of initial-data sets representing binary black-hole configurations in quasi-circular orbits is studied in the context of the conformal-imaging formalism. An effective-potential approach for locating quasi-circular orbits is…
We study the spin dynamics of individual black holes in a binary system. In particular we focus on the polar precession of spins and the possibility of a complete flip of spins with respect to the orbital plane. We perform a full numerical…
We review some recent works on the post-Newtonian theory of slowly-moving (post-Newtonian) sources, and its application to the problems of dynamics and gravitational radiation from compact binary systems. Our current knowledge is 3PN on the…
A powerful technique to calculate gravitational radiation from binary systems involves a perturbative expansion: if the masses of the two bodies are very different, the "small" body is treated as a point particle of mass $m_p$ moving in the…
The post-Newtonian expansion appears to be a relevant tool for predicting the gravitational waveforms generated by some astrophysical systems such as binaries. In particular, inspiralling compact binaries are well-modelled by a system of…
With the discovery of the binary black hole coalescence GW150914, the era of gravitational-wave astrophysics has started. Gravitational-wave signals emitted by compact binary coalescences will be detected in large number by LIGO and Virgo…
High-accuracy binary black hole simulations are presented for black holes with spins anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. The particular case studied represents an equal-mass binary with spins of equal magnitude S/m^2=0.43757 \pm…
We perform a statistical analysis of the binary black hole problem in the post-Newtonian approximation by systematically sampling and evolving the parameter space of initial configurations for quasi-circular inspirals. Through a principal…
In presence of magnetic fields, the orbits of charged particles can be displaced from the equatorial plane. We study circular orbits of electrically charged massive objects around a magnetic black hole in the probe approximation. We show…
An approximate solution to Einstein's equations representing two widely-separated non-rotating black holes in a circular orbit is constructed by matching a post-Newtonian metric to two perturbed Schwarzschild metrics. The spacetime metric…
Detecting compact objects by means of their gravitational lensing effect on an observed companion in a binary system has already been suggested almost four decades ago. However, these predictions were made even before the first observations…
We construct new models of black hole-neutron star binaries in quasiequilibrium circular orbits by solving Einstein's constraint equations in the conformal thin-sandwich decomposition together with the relativistic equations of…
We review the dramatic progress in the simulations of compact objects and compact-object binaries that has taken place in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. This includes simulations of the inspirals and violent mergers of…