Adiabatic gravitational waveform model for compact objects undergoing quasicircular inspirals into rotating massive black holes

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PhysRevD.109.044020.pdf (2.93 MB)

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https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.044020

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https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.044020
 http://hdl.handle.net/11603/32786

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UMBC Center for Space Sciences and Technology (CSST) / Center for Research and Exploration in Space Sciences & Technology II (CRSST II)

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5109-9704

Date

2024-02-08

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journal articles
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Citation of Original Publication

Nasipak, Zachary. “Adiabatic Gravitational Waveform Model for Compact Objects Undergoing Quasicircular Inspirals into Rotating Massive Black Holes.” Physical Review D 109, no. 4 (February 8, 2024): 044020. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.044020.

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This work was written as part of one of the author's official duties as an Employee of the United States Government and is therefore a work of the United States Government. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 105, no copyright protection is available for such works under U.S. Law.
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Abstract

We present bhpwave: a new python-based, open-source tool for generating the gravitational waveforms of stellar-mass compact objects undergoing quasicircular inspirals into rotating massive black holes. These binaries, known as extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), are exciting mHz gravitational wave sources for future space-based detectors such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Relativistic models of EMRI gravitational wave signals are necessary to unlock the full scientific potential of mHz detectors, yet few open-source EMRI waveform models exist. Thus we built bhpwave, which uses the adiabatic approximation from black hole perturbation theory to rapidly construct gravitational waveforms based on the leading-order inspiral dynamics of the binary. In this work, we present the theoretical and numerical foundations underpinning bhpwave. We also demonstrate how bhpwave can be used to assess the impact of EMRI modeling errors on LISA gravitational wave data analysis. In particular, we find that for retrograde orbits and slowly spinning black holes we can mismodel the gravitational wave phasing by as much as ~10 radians without significantly biasing EMRI parameter estimation.