Spin effects in the inspiral of coalescing compact binaries

Abstract

We derive the contributions of spin-orbit and spin-spin coupling to the gravitational radiation from coalescing binary systems of spinning compact objects. We calculate spin effects in the symmetric, trace-free radiative multipoles that determine the gravitational waveform, and the rate of energy loss. Assuming a balance between energy radiated and orbital energy lost, we determine the spin effects in the evolution of the orbital frequency and orbital radius. Assuming that a laser interferometric gravitational observatory can track the gravitational-wave frequency (twice the orbital frequency) as it sweeps through its sensitive bandwidth between about 10 Hz and one kHz, we estimate the accuracy with which the spins of the component bodies can be determined from the gravitational-wave signal.