An eikonal-inspired approach to the gravitational scattering waveform

Abstract

We revisit the amplitude-based derivation of gravitational waveform for the scattering of two scalar black holes at subleading post-Minkowskian (PM) order. We take an eikonal-inspired approach to the two-massive-particle cut needed in the KMOC framework, as highlighted in arXiv:2308.02125, and show that its effect is to implement a simple change of frame. This clarifies one of the points raised in arXiv:2309.14925 when comparing with the post-Newtonian (PN) results. We then provide an explicit PM expression for the waveform in the soft limit, $\omega\to0$, including the first non-universal, $\omega\log\omega$, contribution. Focusing on this regime, we show that the small-velocity limit of our result agrees with the soft limit of the PN waveform of arXiv:2309.14925, provided that the two quantities are written in the same asymptotic frame. Performing the BMS supertranslation that, as discussed in arXiv:2201.11607, is responsible for the $\mathcal O(G)$ static contribution to the asymptotic field employed in the PN literature, we find agreement between the amplitude-based and the PN soft waveform up to and including $G^3/c^5$ order.