Gravity seminar - Zach Nasipak [UNUSUAL DAY AND PLACE] Seminar

Abstract: We present `bhpwave`, a new open-source waveform model that simulates the gravitational wave signals of stellar-mass compact objects undergoing quasi-circular inspirals into rotating massive black holes. These so-called extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) will be ideal sources for future mHz gravitational wave detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Designing fast and accurate EMRI waveforms is critical to observing these systems, but few open-source waveform models exist. Building upon the adiabatic approximation in perturbation theory, `bhpwave` provides a new open-access Python package that produces (leading-order) accurate simulations of EMRIs with rotating massive black holes. This tool can produce years-long signals in seconds in either the time- or frequency-domains, and it can model EMRIs with massive black holes spinning up to 99.99% of their maximal rate. In this talk we discuss the novel methods underlying `bhpwave` and how they can be applied to future EMRI waveform models. We also demonstrate how modeling errors can degrade EMRI parameter estimation for future space-based gravitational wave observatories.