Gravitational Bremsstrahlung in the Post-Minkowskian Effective Field Theory

Abstract

We study the gravitational radiation emitted during the scattering of two spinless bodies in the post-Minkowskian Effective Field Theory approach. We derive the conserved stress-energy tensor linearly coupled to gravity and the classical probability amplitude of graviton emission at leading and next-to-leading order in the Newton's constant $G$. The amplitude can be expressed in compact form as one-dimensional integrals over a Feynman parameter involving Bessel functions. We use it to recover the leading-order radiated angular momentum expression. Upon expanding it in the relative velocity between the two bodies $v$, we compute the total four-momentum radiated into gravitational waves at leading-order in $G$ and up to an order $v^8$, finding agreement with what was recently computed using scattering amplitude methods. Our results also allow us to investigate the zero frequency limit of the emitted energy spectrum.

11 pages, 1 figure