2011

On the unreasonable effectiveness of the post-Newtonian approximation in gravitational physics

Will, Clifford M.

Understand

The post-Newtonian approximation is a method for solving Einstein's field equations for physical systems in which motions are slow compared to the speed of light and where gravitational fields are weak.

Yet it has proven to be remarkably effective in describing certain strong-field, fast-motion systems, including binary pulsars containing dense neutron stars and binary black hole systems inspiraling toward a final merger.
The reasons for this effectiveness are largely unknown.
When carried to high orders in the post-Newtonian sequence, predictions for the gravitational-wave signal from inspiraling compact binaries will play a key role in gravitational-wave detection by laser-interferometric observatories.

Built on

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Similar

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Then

Pretorius, F (2005) Evolution of binary black hole spacetimes. Phys Rev Lett
2005
Later among the works it cites.
Blanchet L, Qusailah, M S S, Will C M (2005) Gravitational recoil of inspiralling black-hole binaries to second post-Newtonian order. Astrophys J
2005
Later among the works it cites.
Mora T, Will C M (2004) Post-Newtonian diagnostic of quasi-equilibrium binary configurations of compact objects. Phys.Rev. D
2005
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Virgo Collaboration: Acernese F, et al
2006
Later among the works it cites.
Blanchet L (2006) Gravitational radiation from post-Newtonian sources and inspiralling compact binaries. Living Rev Relativity
2006
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Will C M (2006) The confrontation between general relativity and Experiment. Living Rev Relativity
2006
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Baker J G, et al
2006
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Baker J G, van Meter J R, McWilliams S T, Centrella J, Kelly B J (2007) Consistency of post-Newtonian waveforms with numerical relativity. Phys Rev Lett
2007
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Boyle M, et al
2007
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LIGO Scientific Collaboration: Abbott B, et al
2008
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Hannam M, Husa S, González J A, Sperhake U, Brügmann B (2008) Where post-Newtonian and numerical-relativity waveforms meet. Phys Rev D
2008
Later among the works it cites.
Berti E, Iyer S, Will C M (2008) Post-Newtonian diagnosis of quasiequilibrium configurations of neutron star-neutron star and neutron star-black hole binaries. Phys.Rev.D
2008
Later among the works it cites.
Buonanno A, Iyer B R, Ochsner E, Pan Y, Sathyaprakash B S (2009) Comparison of post-Newtonian templates for compact binary inspiral signals in gravitational-wave detectors. Phys Rev D
2009
Later among the works it cites.
Hobbs G, et al
2010
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Le Tiec A, Blanchet L, Will C M (2010) Gravitational-wave recoil from the ringdown phase of coalescing black hole binaries. Class Quantum Grav
2010
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Favata M (2011) Conservative corrections to the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) of a Kerr black hole: A new gauge-invariant post-Newtonian ISCO condition, and the ISCO shift due to test-particle spin and the gravitational self-force. Phys.Rev.D
Original
2011
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