Nonlinear Gravitational-Wave Memory from Binary Black Hole Mergers
Abstract
Some astrophysical sources of gravitational waves can produce a "memory effect," which causes a permanent displacement of the test masses in a freely falling gravitational-wave detector. The Christodoulou memory is a particularly interesting nonlinear form of memory that arises from the gravitational-wave stress-energy tensor's contribution to the distant gravitational-wave field. This nonlinear memory contributes a nonoscillatory component to the gravitational-wave signal at leading (Newtonian-quadrupole) order in the waveform amplitude. Previous computations of the memory and its detectability considered only the inspiral phase of binary black hole coalescence. Using an "effective-one-body" (EOB) approach calibrated to numerical relativity simulations, as well as a simple fully analytic model, the Christodoulou memory is computed for the inspiral, merger, and ringdown. The memory will be very difficult to detect with ground-based interferometers, but is likely to be observable in supermassive black hole mergers with LISA out to redshifts z lsim 2. Detection of the nonlinear memory could serve as an experimental test of the ability of gravity to "gravitate."
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/L159
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0902.3660
- Bibcode:
- 2009ApJ...696L.159F
- Keywords:
-
- black hole physics;
- gravitation;
- gravitational waves;
- relativity;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 3 figures. v2: minor changes to text and references