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The gravitational-wave memory effect

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arxiv 1003.3486 v1 pith:63I3GNO3 submitted 2010-03-17 gr-qc astro-ph.HE

The gravitational-wave memory effect

classification gr-qc astro-ph.HE
keywords memorynonlineargravitational-waveamplitudecontributioneffectinspiralorder
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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The nonlinear memory effect is a slowly-growing, non-oscillatory contribution to the gravitational-wave amplitude. It originates from gravitational waves that are sourced by the previously emitted waves. In an ideal gravitational-wave interferometer a gravitational-wave with memory causes a permanent displacement of the test masses that persists after the wave has passed. Surprisingly, the nonlinear memory affects the signal amplitude starting at leading (Newtonian-quadrupole) order. Despite this fact, the nonlinear memory is not easily extracted from current numerical relativity simulations. After reviewing the linear and nonlinear memory I summarize some recent work, including: (1) computations of the memory contribution to the inspiral waveform amplitude (thus completing the waveform to third post-Newtonian order); (2) the first calculations of the nonlinear memory that include all phases of binary black hole coalescence (inspiral, merger, ringdown); and (3) realistic estimates of the detectability of the memory with LISA.

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Cited by 12 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Gravitational Memory from Hairy Binary Black Hole Mergers

    gr-qc 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 8.0

    Gravitational memory from hairy binary black hole mergers in scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity differs from GR by a few percent due to altered nonlinear dynamics, with direct scalar contributions suppressed, and including m...

  2. The Bondi--Sachs gauge, BMS frames, and memory in black hole perturbation theory

    gr-qc 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Introduces a gauge transformation framework for BMS frames in multiscale black hole perturbation theory on Kerr that incorporates memory effects and avoids infrared divergences.

  3. Can Oscillatory and Persistent Nonlinearities Be Bridged in Black Hole Ringdown?

    gr-qc 2026-03 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Quadratic quasinormal modes and Christodoulou memory effect are related through bridge coefficients depending primarily on remnant black hole parameters.

  4. Toward claiming a detection of gravitational memory

    gr-qc 2026-01 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.

  5. Finding Supermassive Black Hole Binary Mergers in Pulsar Timing Array Data

    astro-ph.HE 2025-10 conditional novelty 6.0

    A complete SMBHB waveform model enables unified PTA searches for mergers and memory signals, with parameter recovery shown on simulated data for 10^8-10^10 solar mass systems.

  6. Radiation in Fluid/Gravity and the Flat Limit

    hep-th 2025-08 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Establishes a holographic link between bulk gravitational radiation and dissipative corrections plus entropy production in boundary fluids, then constructs Carrollian analogues and celestial observables in the flat limit.

  7. A stepping stone toward detecting gravitational wave memory: a cumulative analysis with the full $(\ell=2, m=0)$ spherical harmonic using events from GWTC-4.0 and GWTC-5.0

    gr-qc 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.5

    Cumulative log10 Bayes factor of 1.38±0.79 favors the full (2,0) mode in GWTC-4.0; decisive evidence is projected to need ~166 events under optimistic assumptions.

  8. Constraining Gravitational Wave Memory with Hierarchical Inference

    gr-qc 2026-05 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...

  9. Can Oscillatory and Persistent Nonlinearities Be Bridged in Black Hole Ringdown?

    gr-qc 2026-03 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Quadratic quasinormal modes and the memory effect in black hole ringdown are related through bridge coefficients that depend primarily on remnant black hole parameters.

  10. de Sitter Corrections to Gravitational Wave Memory

    gr-qc 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    The paper derives leading-order de Sitter corrections of order Lambda to gravitational wave displacement and spin memory using an adapted Bondi-Sachs framework.

  11. The SKAO Pulsar Timing Array

    astro-ph.IM 2026-07 accept novelty 3.5

    An SKAO PTA with ~174 millisecond pulsars can dominate nanohertz GW sensitivity within four years and enable continuous-wave detections plus anisotropy maps of the gravitational-wave background.

  12. Lectures on the Bondi--Metzner--Sachs group and related topics in infrared physics

    gr-qc 2025-04 unverdicted novelty 3.0

    Lecture notes that build the BMS group from prerequisites to applications in soft theorems, memory effects, and new material on asymptotic conformal Killing horizons.