Perturbative, Post-Newtonian, and General Relativistic Dynamics of Black Hole Binaries

The orbital motion of inspiralling and coalescing black hole binaries can be investigated using a variety of approximation schemes and numerical methods within general relativity: post-Newtonian expansions, black hole perturbation theory, numerical relativity, and the effective-one-body formalism. We review two recent comparisons of the predictions from these various techniques. Both comparisons rely on the calculation of a coordinate invariant relation, in the case of non-spinning binary black holes on quasi-circular orbits. All methods are shown to agree very well in their common domain of validity.
Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; to appear in the Proceedings of the "46th Rencontres de Moriond & GPhyS Colloquium on Gravitational Waves and Experimental Gravity", La Thuile (Italy), March 2011