Phasing of gravitational waves from inspiralling eccentric binaries

Abstract

We develop a method for analytically constructing highly accurate post-Newtonian (PN) templates for gravitational-wave signals emitted by compact binaries moving in inspiralling eccentric orbits. Employing an improved 'method of variation of constants', applied to 2PN accurate generalized quasi-Keplerian parametrization for the orbital motion, we combine three relevant time scales associated with the orbital period, periastron precession and radiation reaction, without treating the radiative time scale in an adiabatic manner. We explicitly implement our method to obtain 2.5PN accurate 'post-adiabatic' gravitational waveforms h+,×. Using the 'effective one-body' approach, we define the domain of validity of our method. We also discuss how to extend our method to construct 'ready to use' search templates for gravitational waves from inspiralling eccentric orbits.