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Adding gravitational memory to waveform catalogs using BMS balance laws

3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

3 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Accurate models of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes are crucial for detectors to measure events and extract new science. One important feature that is currently missing from the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration's catalog of waveforms for merging black holes, and other waveform catalogs, is the gravitational memory effect: a persistent, physical change to spacetime that is induced by the passage of transient radiation. We find, however, that by exploiting the Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) balance laws, which come from the extended BMS transformations, we can correct the strain waveforms in the SXS catalog to include the missing displacement memory. Our results show that these corrected waveforms satisfy the BMS balance laws to a much higher degree of accuracy. Furthermore, we find that these corrected strain waveforms coincide especially well with the waveforms obtained from Cauchy-characteristic extraction (CCE) that already exhibit memory effects. These corrected strain waveforms also evade the transient junk effects that are currently present in CCE waveforms. Lastly, we make our code for computing these contributions to the BMS balance laws and memory publicly available as a part of the python package $\texttt{sxs}$, thus enabling anyone to evaluate the expected memory effects and violation of the BMS balance laws.

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fields

gr-qc 2 hep-th 1

years

2026 3

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representative citing papers

Toward claiming a detection of gravitational memory

gr-qc · 2026-01-30 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

A framework using scale separation in the Isaacson description defines observable gravitational memory rise for compact binary coalescences, providing a basis for hypothesis testing in LISA data.

Constraining Gravitational Wave Memory with Hierarchical Inference

gr-qc · 2026-05-26 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Hierarchical Bayesian inference on GWTC-5.0 constrains the memory enhancement factor to 0.26 with large uncertainties consistent with the GR value of 1 and forecasts that 2000 detections are needed for a 1σ constraint away from zero.

citing papers explorer

Showing 3 of 3 citing papers.

  • The Energy-Momentum-News Complex near Future Null Infinity hep-th · 2026-07-08 · accept · none · ref 6 · internal anchor

    A Carroll-covariant energy-momentum-news complex at future null infinity yields Ward identities that generalise the Bondi loss equations, with an anomalous Carroll boost.

  • Toward claiming a detection of gravitational memory gr-qc · 2026-01-30 · unverdicted · none · ref 91

    A framework using scale separation in the Isaacson description defines observable gravitational memory rise for compact binary coalescences, providing a basis for hypothesis testing in LISA data.

  • Constraining Gravitational Wave Memory with Hierarchical Inference gr-qc · 2026-05-26 · unverdicted · none · ref 87

    Hierarchical Bayesian inference on GWTC-5.0 constrains the memory enhancement factor to 0.26 with large uncertainties consistent with the GR value of 1 and forecasts that 2000 detections are needed for a 1σ constraint away from zero.