Compact binary inspiral: nature is perfectly happy with a circle
Compact binary inspiral: nature is perfectly happy with a circle
It is standard lore that gravitational radiation reaction circularizes the orbits of inspiralling binary systems. But in recent papers, Loutrel et al. have argued that at late times in such inspirals, one measure of eccentricity actually increases, and that this could have observable consequences. We show that this variable, the …