Identifier: 2009-4
Author(s): S.E. Field, J.S. Hesthaven, and S.R. Lau
Title: Discontinuous Galerkin method for computing gravitational waveforms for extreme mass ratio binaries
Page count: 26 pp.
Date: 2009-02-08
Abstract:
Gravitational wave emission from extreme–mass–ratio binaries (EMRBs) should be detectable by the joint NASA–ESU LISA project, spurring interest in analytical and numerical methods for investigating EMRBs. We describe a discontinuous Galerkin (dG) method for solving the distributionally forced 1+1 wave equations which arise when modeling EMRBs via the perturbation theory of Schwarzschild blackholes. Despite the presence of jump discontinuities in the relevant polar and axial gravitational “master functions”, our dG method achieves global spectral accuracy, provided that we know the instantaneous position, velocity, and acceleration of the small particle. Here these variables are known, since we assume that the particle follows a timelike geodesic of the Schwarzschild geometry. We document the results of several numerical experiments testing our method, and discuss the possible incorporation of radiation reaction in the model.
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