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General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc
Abstract:
We present a prescription for computing gravitational waveforms for the
inspiral, merger and ringdown of non-spinning eccentric binary black hole
systems. The inspiral waveform is computed using the post-Newtonian expansion
and the merger waveform is computed by interpolating a small number of
quasi-circular NR waveforms. The use of circular merger waveforms is possible
because eccentric binaries circularize in the last few cycles before the
merger, which we demonstrate up to mass ratio $q = m_1/m_2 = 3$. The complete
model is calibrated to 23 numerical relativity (NR) simulations starting ~20
cycles before the merger with eccentricities $e_\text{ref} \le 0.08$ and mass
ratios $q \le 3$, where $e_\text{ref}$ is the eccentricity ~7 cycles before the
merger. The NR waveforms are long enough that they start above 30 Hz (10 Hz)
for BBH systems with total mass $M \ge 80 M_\odot$ ($230 M_\odot$). We find
that, for the sensitivity of advanced LIGO at the time of its first observing
run, the eccentric model has a faithfulness with NR of over 97% for systems
with total mass $M \ge 85 M_\odot$ across the parameter space ($e_\text{ref}
\le 0.08, q \le 3$). For systems with total mass $M \ge 70 M_\odot$, the
faithfulness is over 97% for $e_\text{ref} \lesssim 0.05$ and $q \le 3$. The NR
waveforms and the Mathematica code for the model are publicly available.
