1202.0790 (Andrea Taracchini et al.)

A prototype effective-one-body model for non-precessing spinning
inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms    [PDF]

Andrea Taracchini, Yi Pan, Alessandra Buonanno, Enrico Barausse, Michael Boyle, Tony Chu, Geoffrey Lovelace, Harald P. Pfeiffer, Mark A. Scheel

We first use five non-spinning and two mildly spinning (chi_i \simeq -0.44,
+0.44) numerical-relativity waveforms of black-hole binaries and calibrate an
effective-one-body (EOB) model for non-precessing spinning binaries, notably
its dynamics and the dominant (2,2) gravitational-wave mode. Then, we combine
the above results with recent outcomes of small-mass-ratio simulations produced
by the Teukolsky equation and build a prototype EOB model for detection
purposes, which is capable of generating inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms for
non-precessing spinning black-hole binaries with any mass ratio and individual
black-hole spins -1 \leq chi_i \lesssim 0.7. We compare the prototype EOB model
to two equal-mass highly spinning numerical-relativity waveforms of black holes
with spins chi_i = -0.95, +0.97, which were not available at the time the EOB
model was calibrated. In the case of Advanced LIGO we find that the mismatch
between prototype-EOB and numerical-relativity waveforms is always smaller than
0.003 for total mass 20-200 M_\odot, the mismatch being computed by maximizing
only over the initial phase and time. To successfully generate merger waveforms
for individual black-hole spins chi_i \gtrsim 0.7, the prototype-EOB model
needs to be improved by (i) better modeling the plunge dynamics and (ii)
including higher-order PN spin terms in the gravitational-wave modes and
radiation-reaction force.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.0790