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Radiation-reaction and angular momentum loss at O(G4)

Carlo Heissenberg

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Phys. Rev. D 111, 126012 – Published 17 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xz14-87q7

Abstract

We point out that the odd-in-velocity contribution to the O(G4) radiated angular momentum for two-body scattering is determined by the radiation-reaction (RR) term in the one-loop waveform. This RR term is actually proportional to the tree-level waveform, and this reduces the calculation of the odd-in-velocity contribution to the O(G4) angular momentum loss, J2  rad, to two loops, instead of three loops as one would expect by power counting. We exploit this simplification, which follows from unitarity, to obtain a closed-form expression for J2  rad for generic velocities, which resums all fractional post-Newtonian (PN) corrections to the O(G4) angular momentum loss starting at 1.5PN.

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Phys. Rev. D 111, 126012– Published 17 June, 2025
  • Received 10 January 2025
  • Revised 12 April 2025
  • Accepted 3 June 2025
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