Analytical Solution of Spinning, Eccentric Binary Black Hole Dynamics at the Second Post-Newtonian Order

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Colin, Tom, Tanay, Sashwat, Bernard, Laura
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Colin, Tom
Tanay, Sashwat
Bernard, Laura
author_facet Colin, Tom
Tanay, Sashwat
Bernard, Laura
contents Recent gravitational wave (GW) detections showing signatures of eccentricity and spin precession underscore the need to model binary black holes (BBHs) possessing these features simultaneously. Most efforts over the past fifteen years to model spinning BBHs and their corresponding GWs have relied on heuristically twisting waveforms from non-precessing systems. This approach is based on empirical observations rather than first principles. This article aims to model the GWs from spinning and eccentric BBHs from a first-principles approach within general relativity and post-Newtonian (PN) approximation. Building on the already-existing 1.5 PN solution, we construct an analytical solution for the time evolution of the relative separation vector, the individual black hole spin vectors, and the orbital angular momentum vector at 2PN order for BBHs with arbitrary spins and eccentricity. Such a solution is not fully 2PN accurate in that the tiny orbital timescale fluctuations in the solutions for the spins are only leading 1.5PN order accurate, instead of 2PN. However, it is shown that our new 2PN solution is still an order of magnitude improvement over the earlier 1.5PN solution, underlining the sub-dominant nature of the neglected next-to-leading-order oscillations in the spin solutions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_20031
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Analytical Solution of Spinning, Eccentric Binary Black Hole Dynamics at the Second Post-Newtonian Order
Colin, Tom
Tanay, Sashwat
Bernard, Laura
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Recent gravitational wave (GW) detections showing signatures of eccentricity and spin precession underscore the need to model binary black holes (BBHs) possessing these features simultaneously. Most efforts over the past fifteen years to model spinning BBHs and their corresponding GWs have relied on heuristically twisting waveforms from non-precessing systems. This approach is based on empirical observations rather than first principles. This article aims to model the GWs from spinning and eccentric BBHs from a first-principles approach within general relativity and post-Newtonian (PN) approximation. Building on the already-existing 1.5 PN solution, we construct an analytical solution for the time evolution of the relative separation vector, the individual black hole spin vectors, and the orbital angular momentum vector at 2PN order for BBHs with arbitrary spins and eccentricity. Such a solution is not fully 2PN accurate in that the tiny orbital timescale fluctuations in the solutions for the spins are only leading 1.5PN order accurate, instead of 2PN. However, it is shown that our new 2PN solution is still an order of magnitude improvement over the earlier 1.5PN solution, underlining the sub-dominant nature of the neglected next-to-leading-order oscillations in the spin solutions.
title Analytical Solution of Spinning, Eccentric Binary Black Hole Dynamics at the Second Post-Newtonian Order
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20031