Ringdown modeling for effective-one-body waveforms in the test-mass limit for eccentric equatorial orbits around a Kerr black hole

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Main Authors: Albanesi, Simone, Bernuzzi, Sebastiano, Nagar, Alessandro
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Albanesi, Simone
Bernuzzi, Sebastiano
Nagar, Alessandro
author_facet Albanesi, Simone
Bernuzzi, Sebastiano
Nagar, Alessandro
contents We study the plunge and merger of a non-spinning particle falling into a Kerr black hole following an eccentric planar inspiral. The dynamics is driven by an effective-one-body radiation reaction, and the corresponding numerical inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms are obtained by solving the Teukolsky equation with the 2+1 time-domain code Teukode. We then analyze in detail the plunge and merger phases, modeling the merger-ringdown waveform using closed-form ansätze. Crucially, our modeling starts from a point closely related to the light-ring crossing, rather than from the amplitude peaks. This choice allows us to neglect the impact of the relativistic anomaly at the separatrix-crossing, and to extend the modeling to high spins and high eccentricities. We model all the multipoles with $m\geq 1$ up to $\ell=4$, as well as the $(2,0)$, $(5,5)$, $(5,4)$, and $(5,3)$ modes, including spherical-spheroidal mode-mixing and the beating between co-rotating and counter-rotating quasi-normal modes. The post-merger waveform model is then employed to complete an effective-one-body inspiral-plunge waveform, thus providing a complete description. Our model, built using elliptic-like configurations for the merger-ringdown phase, naturally extends to dynamical capture scenarios without any further modification. Finally, we provide insights into the extension of this framework to generic mass ratios, arguing that a time closely related to the inflection point of the (2,2) waveform frequency could be used as anchoring point for the ringdown modeling.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_19413
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ringdown modeling for effective-one-body waveforms in the test-mass limit for eccentric equatorial orbits around a Kerr black hole
Albanesi, Simone
Bernuzzi, Sebastiano
Nagar, Alessandro
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We study the plunge and merger of a non-spinning particle falling into a Kerr black hole following an eccentric planar inspiral. The dynamics is driven by an effective-one-body radiation reaction, and the corresponding numerical inspiral-merger-ringdown waveforms are obtained by solving the Teukolsky equation with the 2+1 time-domain code Teukode. We then analyze in detail the plunge and merger phases, modeling the merger-ringdown waveform using closed-form ansätze. Crucially, our modeling starts from a point closely related to the light-ring crossing, rather than from the amplitude peaks. This choice allows us to neglect the impact of the relativistic anomaly at the separatrix-crossing, and to extend the modeling to high spins and high eccentricities. We model all the multipoles with $m\geq 1$ up to $\ell=4$, as well as the $(2,0)$, $(5,5)$, $(5,4)$, and $(5,3)$ modes, including spherical-spheroidal mode-mixing and the beating between co-rotating and counter-rotating quasi-normal modes. The post-merger waveform model is then employed to complete an effective-one-body inspiral-plunge waveform, thus providing a complete description. Our model, built using elliptic-like configurations for the merger-ringdown phase, naturally extends to dynamical capture scenarios without any further modification. Finally, we provide insights into the extension of this framework to generic mass ratios, arguing that a time closely related to the inflection point of the (2,2) waveform frequency could be used as anchoring point for the ringdown modeling.
title Ringdown modeling for effective-one-body waveforms in the test-mass limit for eccentric equatorial orbits around a Kerr black hole
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19413