Session H1 - Issues in Gravitational Radiation.
INVITED session, Sunday morning, April 29
Grand Ballroom North/Central, Renaissance Hotel$
The completion of a network of advanced laser-interferometric gravitational-wave observatories around 2001 will make possible the study of the inspiral and coalescence of binary systems of compact objects (neutron stars and black holes), using gravitational radiation. To extract useful information from the waves, theoretical general relativistic gravitational waveforms will be used as templates, cross-correlated against the detector outputs. The templates must be extremely accurate, probably as accurate as O[(v/c)^6] beyond the predictions of the simple quadrupole formula. This presents a major challenge to theorists. We summarize a new method for calculating gravitational radiation to high order in v/c, in which Einstein's equations are recast as a flat spacetime wave equation with matter source and gravitational non-linearities extending to infinity. The method is free of divergences and properly yields non-linear effects, such as ``tails''. We report on progress in evaluating equations of motion to third post-Newtonian order, and in obtaining radiation reaction effects of spinning bodies.