Preferred Frame
In 2011, I identifed a robust ``corotating frame”, a way of choosing time-dependent angular coordinates at large distances using only the radiated signal. Tested against simulated binary mergers provided by Georgia Tech (J. Healy), this frame simplifies the outgoing gravitational wave signal. Mode-by-mode, the corotating-frame waveform is roughly similar to to nonprecessing waveforms, with vastly reduced modulation.
Putting physical motivation aside, this coordinate convention allowed my collaborators and I to
more easily identify and model trends versus physical parameters. We are moving quickly to exploit
the natural opportunities this tool provides, such as
* choose new precessing simulations, sufficiently different from prior results, with a
data-analysis-motivated metric
* compare simulations to one another, to analytic models, and to interpolations between simulated
points.
* understand how and how strongly different degrees of freedom impact the measurable signal
- permit efficient generation of approximate interpolated or synthetic ‘precessing’ waveforms, multiplying an interpolated rotation with an interpolated waveform
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