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Defining eccentricity for gravitational wave astronomy

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arxiv 2302.11257 v3 pith:WB5IHRHH submitted 2023-02-22 gr-qc astro-ph.HE

Defining eccentricity for gravitational wave astronomy

classification gr-qc astro-ph.HE
keywords eccentricitydefinitionmodelssimulationsbinariesdifferenteccentricgravitational
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Eccentric compact binary mergers are significant scientific targets for current and future gravitational wave observatories. To detect and analyze eccentric signals, there is an increasing effort to develop waveform models, numerical relativity simulations, and parameter estimation frameworks for eccentric binaries. Unfortunately, current models and simulations use different internal parameterisations of eccentricity in the absence of a unique natural definition of eccentricity in general relativity, which can result in incompatible eccentricity measurements. In this paper, we adopt a standardized definition of eccentricity and mean anomaly based solely on waveform quantities, and make our implementation publicly available through an easy-to-use Python package, gw_eccentricity. This definition is free of gauge ambiguities, has the correct Newtonian limit, and can be applied as a postprocessing step when comparing eccentricity measurements from different models. This standardization puts all models and simulations on the same footing and enables direct comparisons between eccentricity estimates from gravitational wave observations and astrophysical predictions. We demonstrate the applicability of this definition and the robustness of our implementation for waveforms of different origins, including post-Newtonian theory, effective one body, extreme mass ratio inspirals, and numerical relativity simulations. We focus on binaries without spin-precession in this work, but possible generalizations to spin-precessing binaries are discussed.

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Cited by 16 Pith papers

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  4. Non-adiabatic dynamics of eccentric black-hole binaries in post-Newtonian theory

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    New non-orbit-averaged 2.5PN equations for eccentric non-spinning black-hole binaries derived via energy-momentum mappings, showing Peters 1964 orbit-averaged equations break at first pericenter.

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    Bayesian inference on LVK O1-O3 events with eccentric aligned-spin waveforms yields log10 Bayes factors of 1.77-4.75 favoring eccentricity for GW200129, GW190701 and GW200208_22, and >99.5% probability that at least o...

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    gr-qc 2025-07 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    Bayesian parameter estimation with targeted eccentric numerical-relativity waveforms yields eccentricity estimates of e20 ≈ 0.2 for GW200208_22 and e10 ≈ 0.19 for GW190620, reinforcing the eccentric hypothesis.