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Free keywords:
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology, gr-qc,Astrophysics, Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, astro-ph.CO, Astrophysics, Galaxy Astrophysics, astro-ph.GA
Abstract:
In the effective-one-body (EOB) approach the dynamics of two compact objects
of masses m1 and m2 and spins S1 and S2 is mapped into the dynamics of one test
particle of mass mu = m1 m2/(m1+m2) and spin S* moving in a deformed Kerr
metric with mass M = m1+m2 and spin Skerr. In a previous paper we computed an
EOB Hamiltonian for spinning black-hole binaries that (i) when expanded in
post-Newtonian orders, reproduces the leading order spin-spin coupling and the
leading and next-to-leading order spin-orbit couplings for any mass ratio, and
(iii) reproduces all spin-orbit couplings in the test-particle limit. Here we
extend this EOB Hamiltonian to include next-to-next-to-leading spin-orbit
couplings for any mass ratio. We discuss two classes of EOB Hamiltonians that
differ by the way the spin variables are mapped between the effective and real
descriptions. We also investigate the main features of the dynamics when the
motion is equatorial, such as the existence of the innermost stable circular
orbit and of a peak in the orbital frequency during the plunge subsequent to
the inspiral.
