Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2009
Journal / Book Title
The Astrophysical Journal
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 ≲ 2. Detection of the nonlinear memory could serve as an experimental test of the ability of gravity to "gravitate."
DOI
10.1088/0004-637X/696/2/L159
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Favata, Marc, "Nonlinear Gravitational-Wave Memory from Binary Black Hole Mergers" (2009). Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 90.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/physics-astron-facpubs/90
Published Citation
Favata, M. (2009). Nonlinear gravitational-wave memory from binary black hole mergers. The Astrophysical Journal, 696(2), L159.