Binary Inspirals in Nordström's Second Theory

We investigate Nordström's second theory of gravitation, with a focus on utilizing it as a testbed for developing techniques in numerical relativity. Numerical simulations of inspiraling compact star binaries are performed for this theory, and compared to the predictions of semi-analytic calculations (which are similar to Peters and Mathews' results for GR). The simulations are based on a co-rotating spherical coordinate system, where both finite difference and pseudo-spectral methods are used. We also adopt the "Hydro without Hydro" approximation, and the Weak Radiation Reaction approximation when the orbital motion is quasi-circular. We evolve a binary with quasi-circular initial data for hundreds of orbits and find that the resulting inspiral closely matches the 1/4 power law profile given by the semi-analytical calculations. We additionally find that an eccentric binary circularizes and precesses at the expected rates. The methods investigated thus provide a promising line of attack for the numerical modeling of long binary inspirals in general relativity.

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