Inspiralling compact binaries in quasi-elliptical orbits: The complete third post-Newtonian energy flux

Abstract

The instantaneous contributions to the third post-Newtonian (3PN) gravitational wave luminosity from the inspiral phase of a binary system of compact objects moving in a quasi-elliptical orbit is computed using the multipolar post-Minkowskian wave generation formalism. The necessary inputs for this calculation include the 3PN accurate mass quadrupole moment for general orbits and the mass octupole and current quadrupole moments at 2PN. Using the recently obtained 3PN quasi-Keplerian representation of elliptical orbits, the flux is averaged over the binary's orbit. Supplementing this by the important hereditary contributions arising from tails, tails of tails, and tails-squared terms calculated in a previous paper, the complete 3PN energy flux is obtained. The final result presented in this paper would be needed for the construction of ready-to-use templates for binaries moving on noncircular orbits, a plausible class of sources not only for the space-based detectors like LISA but also for the ground-based ones.