The Last Three Minutes: Issues in Gravitational Wave Measurements of Coalescing Compact Binaries
Curt Cutler, Theocharis A. Apostolatos, Lars Bildsten, Lee Samuel Finn, Eanna E. Flanagan, Daniel Kennefick, Dragoljubov M. Markovic, Amos Ori, Eric Poisson, Gerald Jay Sussman, Kip S. Thorne
TL;DR
Improved wave form modeling is needed as a foundation for extracting the waves’ information, but is not necessary for wave detection.
Abstract
Gravitational-wave interferometers are expected to monitor the last three minutes of inspiral and final coalescence of neutron star and black hole binaries at distances approaching cosmological, where the event rate may be many per year. Because the binary's accumulated orbital phase can be measured to a fractional accuracy $\ll 10^{-3}$ and relativistic effects are large, the waveforms will be far more complex, carry more information, and be far harder to model theoretically than has been expected. Theorists must begin now to lay a foundation for extracting the waves' information.