Modeling gravitational waves from asymmetric binaries: from the intermediate to the extreme

IAP weekly specialised seminars / 24 May 2024
Adam Pound (School of Mathematical Sciences at University of Southampton, United Kingdom)
Current, ground-based gravitational-wave detectors have almost exclusively observed compact binaries made up of roughly equal-mass pairs of objects (black hole or neutron stars). But future detectors will observe asymmetric binaries with a wide spectrum of mass ratios, from stellar objects orbiting intermediate-mass black holes all the way to the most extreme case of stellar-mass objects orbiting massive black holes a million times larger in galactic nuclei. These asymmetric binaries hold unique scientific potential -- tests of gravity, probes of galactic nuclei, and precise information about the nature and history of black holes -- making them key sources for future detectors such as LISA. In this talk, I discuss how we are facing the challenge of accurately modeling these systems using an approach known as gravitational self-force theory.