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Gravitational-wave memory revisited: Memory from the merger and recoil of binary black holes

Marc Favata

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Gravitational-wave memory refers to the permanent displacement of the test masses in an idealized (freely-falling) gravitational-wave interferometer. Inspiraling binaries produce a particularly interesting form of memory—the Christodoulou memory. Although it originates from nonlinear interactions at 2.5 post-Newtonian order, the Christodoulou memory affects the gravitational-wave amplitude at leading (Newtonian) order. Previous calculations have computed this non-oscillatory amplitude correction during the inspiral phase of binary coalescence. Using an "effective-one-body" description calibrated with the results of numerical relativity simulations, the evolution of the memory during the inspiral, merger, and ringdown phases, as well as the memory's final saturation value, are calculated. Using this model for the memory, the prospects for its detection are examined, particularly for supermassive black hole binary coalescences that LISA will detect with high signal-to-noise ratios. Coalescing binary black holes also experience center-of-mass recoil due to the anisotropic emission of gravitational radiation. These recoils can manifest themselves in the gravitational-wave signal in the form of a "linear" memory and a Doppler shift of the quasi-normal-mode frequencies. The prospects for observing these effects are also discussed.


PACS

04.80.Nn Gravitational wave detectors and experiments

97.80.-d Binary and multiple stars

07.60.Ly Interferometers

95.30.Sf Relativity and gravitation

97.60.Lf Black holes

95.55.Ym Gravitational radiation detectors; mass spectrometers; and other instrumentation and techniques

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Gravitation and cosmology

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 1 (2009)



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