Accurately modeling astrophysical extreme-mass-ratio-insprials requires calculating the gravitational self-force for orbits in Kerr spacetime. The necessary calculation techniques are typically very complex and, consequently, toy scalar-field models
are often developed in order to establish a particular calculational approach. To that end, I present a calculation of the scalar-field self-force for a particle moving on a (fixed) inclined circular geodesic of a background Kerr black hole. I make the calculation in the frequency-domain and demonstrate how to apply the mode-sum regularization procedure to all four components of the self-force. I present results for a number of strong-field orbits which can be used as benchmarks for emerging self-force calculation techniques in Kerr spacetime.
The equations of motion of a point particle interacting with its own field are defined in terms of a certain regularized self-field. Two of the leading methods for computing this regularized field are the mode-sum and effective-source approaches. In
this work we unite these two distinct regularization schemes by generalizing traditional frequency-domain mode-sum calculations to incorporate effective-source techniques. For a toy scalar-field model we analytically compute an appropriate puncture field from which the regularized residual field can be calculated. To demonstrate the method, we compute the self-force for a scalar particle on a circular orbit in Schwarzschild spacetime. We also demonstrate the relation between the worldtube and window function approaches to localizing the puncture field to the neighborhood of the worldline and show how the method reduces to the well-known mode-sum regularization scheme in a certain limit. This new computational scheme can be applied to cases where traditional mode-sum regularization is inadequate, such as in calculations at second perturbative order.
Bound geodesic orbits around a Kerr black hole can be parametrized by three constants of the motion: the (specific) orbital energy, angular momentum and Carter constant. Generically, each orbit also has associated with it three frequencies, related t
o the radial, longitudinal and (mean) azimuthal motions. Here we note the curious fact that these two ways of characterizing bound geodesics are not in a one-to-one correspondence. While the former uniquely specifies an orbit up to initial conditions, the latter does not: there is a (strong-field) region of the parameter space in which pairs of physically distinct orbits can have the same three frequencies. In each such isofrequency pair the two orbits exhibit the same rate of periastron precession and the same rate of Lense-Thirring precession of the orbital plane, and (in a certain sense) they remain synchronized in phase.
We present results from calculations of the orbital evolution in eccentric binaries of nonrotating black holes with extreme mass-ratios. Our inspiral model is based on the method of osculating geodesics, and is the first to incorporate the full gravi
tational self-force (GSF) effect, including conservative corrections. The GSF information is encapsulated in an analytic interpolation formula based on numerical GSF data for over a thousand sample geodesic orbits. We assess the importance of including conservative GSF corrections in waveform models for gravitational-wave searches.
