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[1] Landau L.D., Lifshitz, E.M. (1975). The classical theory of fields. Butterworth-Heinemann. Oxford.
[2] Bertotti, B., Grishchuck, L.P., The strong equivalence principle, Class. Quantum Grav 7 (1990)
[3] Schutz, B. (2009). A first course in general relativity. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge
[4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pol.jpg
[5] B.P. Abbot et al., Observation of Gravitational waves from a Binary Black Hole merger, Phys. Rev. Lett 116, 061102, 2016
[6] Fernandez., J.J, Kobayashi, S., Black hole mergers induced by tidal encounters with a galactic centre black hole, in prep, 2018
[7] Marchant, P. et al., A new route towards merging massive black holes, A&A 588, 2016
* J.J.Fernandez@2017.ljmu.ac.uk [8] Mandel, I., de Mink, S. E., Merging binary black holes formed through chemically homogenous evolution in short period stellar binaries, MNRAS 458, 2016
[9] VanLandingham, J. H., et al., The Role of the Kozai--Lidov Mechanism in Black Hole Binary Mergers in Galactic Centers, Astrophys. J, 828, 77016, 2016
[10] Rodriguez, C. L., et al., Binary Black Hole Mergers from Globular Clusters: Implications for Advanced LIGO, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 051101
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General Relativity and gravitational waves: a primer
Joseph John Fernandez* & Shiho Kobayashi
Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University
Liverpool Science Park IC2, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
Abstract
The LIGO/Virgo observatories recently detected gravitational waves (GWs) from black hole (BH) mergers. These avoided detection for a century after their prediction by Albert Einstein, who
thought such a feat would never be possible. The observation of these waves has allowed, for the first time since the formulation of General Relativity (GR), for the direct observation of black
holes and the study of gravity in the strong, dynamical regime. We give a brief overview of the modern description of gravity, gravitational waves and their origin. On a closing note, a dynamical
formation channel for BH binaries, tidal encounters of these systems with galactic centre massive BHs, will be discussed.

Introduction: the equivalence principle

During the early years of the 20th century, it became clear that Newton's universal law of EM waves Gravitational waves
gravitation required modification. It gave predictions for the precession of Mercury's perihelion Type of wave Transverse Transverse
which did not coincide with observations. From a theoretical perspective, its explicit non-locality
made it incompatible with special relativity (SR). Polarization states 2: horizontal and vertical 2: h+ and hx (see fig. 1)

To a great degree of accuracy, the inertial mass (the opposition of a body to change its state of Propagation speed c (in vacuum) c (confirmed within error by LIGO/VIRGO)
motion) and gravitational mass (a measure of how much a particle is affected by a gravitational
Lowest order source Time varying dipole Time varying quadrupole
field) are equal. A direct consequence of this is the universality of free fall, or the weak
equivalence principle [1]: Table 1. Comparison of some properties of gravitational and electromagnetic waves.

"All bodies, independently of mass or composition, accelerate equally under the influence of a
gravitational field. "

From this it follows that a free-falling observer would not be able to tell the difference between
being immersed in a gravitational field or in an accelerated reference frame: the dynamics
would be identical.

Einstein took this principle a step further, proposing what is now known as the Einstein
equivalence principle (EEP) [2]:

"The laws of physics in free-fall are locally equivalent to those in the absence of gravity"

General relativity
The EEP is a very powerful statement: it implies that if we know the laws of physics in the
absence of gravity, then we also know their description in the presence of gravity. Because free-
fall is equivalent to motion in an accelerated reference frame, and acceleration can be removed
with an adequate change of reference frame, this means we can describe gravity by means of a
coordinate transformation. Conversely, what we know as the gravitational field is a change of
the geometry, or curvature, of the space-time, due to the presence of mass. This is embodied in
a mathematical object known as the metric tensor, which tells us how to measure distances in
curved space [3]:
(1)
This is how gravity is understood in GR: the presence of mass changes the geometry of space-
time. Gravity is a fictitious force which bodies feel as they free-fall through curved space-
time. One of the strong points of this description is that it is local, a feature embodied in
gravitational waves (GWs).
Figure 1. Illustration of the effect of the independent Figure 2. Top: depiction of the inspiral and merger. Middle:
polarization states of GW waves, the h+ and hx states, on Reconstructed waveform compared to numerical relativity
the relative positions of a set of test particles. Source: [4] prediction. Source: [5] (modified)
Black hole binaries: where did they come from?
Before the 2015 LIGO detections black holes had never been observed directly. These
observations also proved the existence of stellar-mass binary black holes. Many more are
necessary to determine the origin of these objects [5]. Several formation channels have
been proposed, and can be divided into two broad categories [6]:
· Isolated field binary scenarios: These consider massive field binaries which
evolve independently. Examples of these models include homogeneous chemical
evolution and the massive overcontact binary model [7,8].
· Dynamical formation scenarios: These consider that interaction with other compact
objects (scattering, N-body exchanges, the Kozai-Lidov mechanism...) in dense
environments are what eventually lead to binary coalescence [9,10].

Gravitational waves and black hole binaries

A dynamical source of merging black hole binaries in the galactic centre
Waves are ubiquitous in physics. They are how information regarding changes in the local
properties of a system reach spatially separated regions. Examples include sound waves, which We study a dynamical formation process of
transport pressure and density changes in a fluid, or electromagnetic waves such as light. In GR, GWS. We consider a close encounter with a
small perturbations of the gravitational field are transported by GWs. That is, perturbations to MBH can alter the orbits of BH binaries [6].
the metric of the form [3]
· We find that if the binary survives the
(2) encounter, its GW merger time can be
reduced, in some cases by several orders of
propagate obeying a wave equation, and at a finite speed. Many of their properties are magnitude.
analogous to those of EM waves (see table 1). Gravitational waves are the physical manifestation · We have also characterized the
of the locality of General Relativity. Newtonian gravity does not present this feature. In this expected effective spin and eccentricity
theory changes in mass distributions, and hence the gravitational field propagates distributions expected from this process.
Figure 3. Example trajectory of the secondary component in
instantaneously to all points in space. the primary comoving frame. The tidal encounter makes the
binary hard and eccentric.

Systems which give rise to time-varying gravitational fields, such as compact binaries, radiate
GWs which carry away energy and momentum from them. As GWs propagate through space-
time, they locally perturb the metric at each point, changing the proper distance between
particles as they pass. Like EM waves, they have two independent polarization states. The effect
of these on the relative positions of a set of particles is illustrated in figure 1.

Compact binary systems, such as BH binaries, are prime sources of GWs. GW emission causes
these systems to inspiral: their orbits circularize (if they are eccentric) and tighten, until they
eventually coalesce. As they inspiral, the frequency of their orbit and of their GW
radiation increases, giving rise to a chirp like signal (see figure 2).

As of 2018, the joint aLIGO/VIRGO GW observatory network has reported a total of five
confirmed (and one tentative) BH and one neutron star merger. It is expected that at design
sensitivity these facilities will detect tens to hundreds of merging binary systems, allowing for
unprecedented verification of the predictions of GR in the dynamical regime [3].
Figure 4. Cumulative distribution of the post-encounter GW Figure 5. Post-encounter effective spins for three initial BH
spin configurations. Around 5-7% of the mergers produced
merger time. The merger time is reduced by a factor of 100
by the mechanism have negative effective spins.
or more in 10% of cases, and by a factor of 100000 or more
in 1% of cases.