TY - JOUR
T1 - On the equal-mass limit of precessing black-hole binaries
AU - Gerosa, Davide
AU - Sperhake, Ulrich
AU - Vošmera, Jakub
PY - 2017/3/1
Y1 - 2017/3/1
N2 - We analyze the inspiral dynamics of equal-mass precessing black-hole binaries using multi-timescale techniques. The orbit-averaged post-Newtonian evolutionary equations admit two constants of motion in the equal-mass limit, namely the magnitude of the total spin S and the effective spin ξ. This feature makes the entire dynamics qualitatively different compared to the generic unequal-mass case, where only ξ is constant while the variable S parametrizes the precession dynamics. For fixed individual masses and spin magnitudes, an equal-mass black-hole inspiral is uniquely characterized by the two parameters ≤ft(S,ξ \right) : these two numbers completely determine the entire evolution under the effect of radiation reaction. In particular, for equal-mass binaries we find that (i) the black-hole binary spin morphology is constant throughout the inspiral, and that (ii) the precessional motion of the two black-hole spins about the total spin takes place on a longer timescale than the precession of the total spin and the orbital plane about the total angular momentum.
AB - We analyze the inspiral dynamics of equal-mass precessing black-hole binaries using multi-timescale techniques. The orbit-averaged post-Newtonian evolutionary equations admit two constants of motion in the equal-mass limit, namely the magnitude of the total spin S and the effective spin ξ. This feature makes the entire dynamics qualitatively different compared to the generic unequal-mass case, where only ξ is constant while the variable S parametrizes the precession dynamics. For fixed individual masses and spin magnitudes, an equal-mass black-hole inspiral is uniquely characterized by the two parameters ≤ft(S,ξ \right) : these two numbers completely determine the entire evolution under the effect of radiation reaction. In particular, for equal-mass binaries we find that (i) the black-hole binary spin morphology is constant throughout the inspiral, and that (ii) the precessional motion of the two black-hole spins about the total spin takes place on a longer timescale than the precession of the total spin and the orbital plane about the total angular momentum.
U2 - 10.1088/1361-6382/aa5e58
DO - 10.1088/1361-6382/aa5e58
M3 - Article
SN - 0264-9381
VL - 34
JO - Classical and Quantum Gravity
JF - Classical and Quantum Gravity
M1 - 064004
ER -