Gravitational perturbations of the Schwarzschild spacetime: A practical covariant and gauge-invariant formalism

As is well-known, the Schwarzschild metric cannot be derived based on pre-general-relativistic physics alone, which means using only special relativity, the Einstein equivalence principle and the Newtonian limit. The standard way to derive it is to employ Einstein's field equations. Yet, analogy with Newtonian gravity and electrodynamics suggests that a more constructive way towards the gravitational field of a point mass might exist. As it turns out, the additional physics n...

In this second paper of our series we focus on the classical pure gravity sector of spherically symmetric black hole perturbations and expand the reduced Hamiltonian to second order. To compare our manifestly gauge invariant formalism with established results in the literature we have to translate our results derived in Gullstrand-Painlev\'e gauge to the gauges used in those works. After several canonical transformations we expectedly find exact agreement with the Hamiltonian...

This article outlines our derivation of the second order perturbations to a Schwarzschild black hole, highlighting our use of, and necessary reliance on, computer algebra. The particular perturbation scenario that is presented here is the case of the linear quadrapole seeding the second order quadrapole. This problem amounts to finding the second order Zerilli wave equation, and in particular the effective source term due to the linear quadrapole. With one minor exception, ou...

We present a new covariant, gauge-invariant formalism describing linear metric perturbation fields on any spherically symmetric background in general relativity. The advantage of this formalism relies in the fact that it does not require a decomposition of the perturbations into spherical tensor harmonics. Furthermore, it does not assume the background to be vacuum, nor does it require its staticity. In the particular case of vacuum perturbations, we derive two master equatio...

We consider perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole that can be of both even and odd parity, keeping terms up to second order in perturbation theory, for the $\ell=2$ axisymmetric case. We develop explicit formulae for the evolution equations and radiated energies and waveforms using the Regge-Wheeler-Zerilli approach. This formulation is useful, for instance, for the treatment in the ``close limit approximation'' of the collision of counterrotating black holes.

The satellite observatory LISA will be capable of detecting gravitational waves from extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), such as a small black hole orbiting a supermassive black hole. The gravitational effects of the much smaller mass can be treated as the perturbation of a known background metric, here the Schwarzschild metric. The perturbed Einstein field equations form a system of ten coupled partial differential equations. We solve the equations in the harmonic gauge, a...

Beginning with the pioneering work of Regge and Wheeler (Phys. Rev. 108, 1957), there have been many studies of perturbations away from the Schwarzschild spacetime background. In particular several authors (e.g. Moncrief, Ann. Phys 88, 1974) have investigated gauge invariant quantities of the Regge-Wheeler (RW) gauge. Steven Detweiler also investigated perturbations of Schwarzschild in his own gauge, which he denoted the "easy (EZ) gauge", and which he was in the process of a...

Misprints corrected, two references added. To appear in the Phys. Rev. D.

We calculate the odd-parity, radiative ($\ell \ge 2$) parts of the metric perturbation in Lorenz gauge caused by a small compact object in eccentric orbit about a Schwarzschild black hole. The Lorenz gauge solution is found via gauge transformation from a corresponding one in Regge-Wheeler gauge. Like the Regge-Wheeler gauge solution itself, the gauge generator is computed in the frequency domain and transferred to the time domain. The wave equation for the gauge generator ha...

We reformulate the theory of Schwarzschild black hole perturbations in terms of the metric perturbation in the Lorenz gauge. In this formulation, each tensor-harmonic mode of the perturbation is constructed algebraically from 10 scalar functions, satisfying a set of 10 wavelike equations, which are decoupled at their principal parts. We solve these equations using numerical evolution in the time domain, for the case of a pointlike test particle set in a circular geodesic orbi...