LIGO Document T2500250-v1

Investigating the Co-precessing Frame Approximation for Binaries on Eccentric Orbits

Document #:
LIGO-T2500250-v1
Document type:
T - Technical notes
Other Versions:
Abstract:
Quasi-circularity has historically been assumed for detected gravitational waves from black hole compact binary coalescences. As low-frequency detector sensitivity improves, we expect to detect these systems farther from merger, before eccentricity has been radiated away. To analyze these signals, we will need well developed and robust eccentric models. Few existing models incorporate precession and eccentricity together as the resulting waveforms are complicated and difficult to model. The co-precessing frame is one tool that simplifies precessing waveforms by creating a reference frame in which the z-axis is always aligned with orbital angular momentum, a transformation that is well-studied for quasi-circular systems and often used to create precessing waveform models. Here we evaluate the co-precessing frame approximation for eccentric and precessing numerical relativity simulations. We find that while shifting to the co-precessing frame counteracts amplitude modulation in the waveform envelope, mode asymmetries remain in the untwisted waveform. We also begin a preliminary analysis of possible shifts in eccentricity and other waveform dynamics due to the co-precessing frame transformation by generating eccentric SEOBv5EHM waveforms. The determination of which precession features linger in the co-precessing frame will aid in future efforts to construct a robust waveform model that includes the effects of both eccentricity and precession.
Keywords:
SURF25

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