GRASP Routines: Waveforms from perturbation theory

0 An alternative method of calculating the waveforms generated during a binary inspiral is provided by black hole perturbation theory. In the limit of a small mass ratio $\eta = \nicefrac{m_1 m_2}{(m_1 + m_2)^2}$ (the test mass limit) we can treat the effects of the smaller body as perturbations of the gravitational field of the larger mass. If the latter is a black hole then the Teukolsky formalism [30] can be used to calculate these perturbations. The corrections to the metric are then expressed as an infinite sum over multipole moments. Here we will consider the case of a Schwarzschild black hole.