Is J enough? Comparison of gravitational waves emitted along the total angular momentum direction with other preferred orientations

Abstract

The gravitational wave signature emitted from a merging binary depends on the orientation of an observer relative to the binary. Previous studies suggest that emission along the total initial or total final angular momenta leads to both the strongest and simplest signal from a precessing compact binary. In this paper we describe a concrete counterexample: a binary with $m_1/m_2=4$, $a_1=0.6\hat{x}=-a_2$, placed in orbit in the x,y plane. We extract the gravitational wave emission along several proposed emission directions, including the initial (Newtonian) orbital angular momentum; the final (~ initial) total angular momentum; and the dominant principal axis of $<L_a{L}_b{>}_M$. Using several diagnostics, we show that the suggested preferred directions are not representative. For example, only for a handful of other directions (< 15%) will the gravitational wave signal have comparable shape to the one extracted along each of these fiducial directions, as measured by a generalized overlap (>0.95). We conclude that the information available in just one direction (or mode) does not adequately encode the complexity of orientation-dependent emission for even short signals from merging black hole binaries. Future investigations of precessing, unequal-mass binaries should carefully explore and model their orientation-dependent emission.

v2 errata

References in corpus (20)

• Toward faithful templates for non-spinning binary black holes using the effective-one-body approach
• Where post-Newtonian and numerical-relativity waveforms meet
• Consistency of post-Newtonian waveforms with numerical relativity
• A geometric approach to the precession of compact binaries
• Binary Black Holes: Spin Dynamics and Gravitational Recoil
• Circularization and Final Spin in Eccentric Binary Black Hole Inspirals
• Zoom-Whirl Orbits in Black Hole Binaries
• Singular value decomposition applied to compact binary coalescence gravitational-wave signals
• Parameter estimation of spinning binary inspirals using Markov-chain Monte Carlo
• Matched Filtering of Numerical Relativity Templates of Spinning Binary Black Holes
• Estimating the parameters of non-spinning binary black holes using ground-based gravitational-wave detectors: Statistical errors
• Efficient asymptotic frame selection for binary black hole spacetimes using asymptotic radiation
• Superkicks in Hyperbolic Encounters of Binary Black Holes
• Simulations of black-hole binaries with unequal masses or non-precessing spins: accuracy, physical properties, and comparison with post-Newtonian results
• Modelling the final state from binary black-hole coalescences
• The spin expansion for binary black hole merger: new predictions and future directions
• Coherent Bayesian inference on compact binary inspirals using a network of interferometric gravitational wave detectors
• Degeneracies in Sky Localisation Determination from a Spinning Coalescing Binary through Gravitational Wave Observations: a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo Analysis for two Detectors
• Complete phenomenological gravitational waveforms from spinning coalescing binaries
• Intrinsic selection biases of ground-based gravitational wave searches for high-mass BH-BH mergers

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Towards models of gravitational waveforms from generic binaries II: Modelling precession effects with a single effective precession parameter
• Towards models of gravitational waveforms from generic binaries: A simple approximate mapping between precessing and non-precessing inspiral signals
• Georgia Tech Catalog of Gravitational Waveforms
• Including higher order multipoles in gravitational-wave models for precessing binary black holes
• Error-analysis and comparison to analytical models of numerical waveforms produced by the NRAR Collaboration
• New twists in compact binary waveform modelling: a fast time domain model for precession
• IMRPhenomTP: A phenomenological time domain model for dominant quadrupole gravitational wave signal of coalescing binary black holes
• Comparing gravitational waves from nonprecessing and precessing black hole binaries in the corotating frame
• Gravitational waves from BH-NS binaries: Effective Fisher matrices and parameter estimation using higher harmonics
• Decoding mode-mixing in black-hole merger ringdown
• The NINJA-2 project: Detecting and characterizing gravitational waveforms modelled using numerical binary black hole simulations
• Precession during merger 1: Strong polarization changes are observationally accessible features of strong-field gravity during binary black hole merger
• Black hole binary remnant mass and spin: A new phenomenological formula
• Gravitational Waveforms for Precessing, Quasi-circular Binaries via Multiple Scale Analysis and Uniform Asymptotics: The Near Spin Alignment Case
• Comparing compact binary parameter distributions I: Methods
• Time-domain phenomenological multipolar waveforms for aligned-spin binary black holes in elliptical orbits
• Asymptotic frame selection for binary black hole spacetimes II: Post-Newtonian limit
• Where angular momentum goes in a precessing black hole binary
• Extracting the orbital axis from gravitational waves of precessing binary systems