Tail effects in the third post-Newtonian gravitational wave energy flux of compact binaries in quasi-elliptical orbits

Abstract

The far-zone flux of energy contains hereditary (tail) contributions that depend on the entire past history of the source. Using the multipolar post-Minkowskian wave generation formalism, we propose and implement a semianalytical method in the frequency domain to compute these contributions from the inspiral phase of a binary system of compact objects moving in quasi-elliptical orbits up to third post-Newtonian (3PN) order. The method explicitly uses the quasi-Keplerian representation of elliptical orbits at 1PN order and exploits the doubly periodic nature of the motion to average the 3PN fluxes over the binary's orbit. Together with the instantaneous (nontail) contributions evaluated in a companion paper, it provides crucial inputs for the construction of ready-to-use templates for compact binaries moving on quasi-elliptic orbits, an interesting class of sources for the ground-based gravitational-wave detectors such as LIGO and Virgo, as well as space-based detectors like LISA.