Improved gravitational wave model linking precessing inspirals and numerical-relativity-calibrated merger-ringdown
Phys. Rev. D 113, 084055 – Published 27 April, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/kxsf-23rr
Abstract
We present the frequency-domain quasicircular precessing binary-black-hole model phenomxpnr. This model combines the most precise available post-Newtonian description of the evolution of the precession dynamics through inspiral with merger-ringdown model informed by numerical relativity. This, along with a phenomenological model of the dominant multipole asymmetries, results in the most accurate and complete representation of the physics of precessing binaries natively in the frequency-domain to date. All state-of-the-art precessing models show bias when inferring binary parameters in certain regions of the parameter space. We demonstrate that the developments presented here ensure that phenomxpnr shows the least degree of bias for some high mass systems with a large degree of precession. Further, as a phenomenological, frequency-domain model, phenomxpnr is one of the most computationally efficient models available and is therefore well suited to the era of gravitational-wave astronomy with its ever growing rate of detected signals.
