Effective-one-body waveforms for precessing coalescing compact binaries with post-Newtonian twist
Rossella Gamba, Sarp Akçay, Sebastiano Bernuzzi, Jake Williams
Abstract
Spin precession is a generic feature of compact binary coalescences that leaves clear imprints in the gravitational waveforms. Building on previous work, we present an efficient time domain inspiral-merger-ringdown effective-one-body model for precessing binary black holes, which incorporates subdominant modes beyond $\ensuremath{\ell}=2$, and the first effective-one-body frequency domain approximant for precessing binary neutron stars. We validate our model against 99 ``short'' numerical relativity precessing waveforms, where we find median mismatches of $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$, $7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ at inclinations of 0, $\ensuremath{\pi}/3$, and 21 ``long'' waveforms with median mismatches of $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ and $5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ at the same inclinations. Further comparisons against the state-of-the-art nrsur7dq4 waveform model yield median mismatches of $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$, $1.8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ at inclinations of $0,\ensuremath{\pi}/3$ for 5000 precessing configurations with the precession parameter ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{p}$ up to 0.8 and mass ratios up to 4. To demonstrate the computational efficiency of our model we apply it to parameter estimation and reanalyze the gravitational-wave events GW150914, GW190412, and GW170817.