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Binary black hole merger in the extreme mass ratio limit: A multipolar analysis of the inclined orbit case

Luca Nagni1,2, Alessandro Nagar1,3, Rossella Gamba4,5, Simone Albanesi1,6, and Sebastiano Bernuzzi1,6

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 044052 – Published 20 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/11xp-8jtk

Abstract

We compute the gravitational waveform emitted during the transition from quasispherical inspiral to plunge, merger, and ringdown for a system of two black holes in the extreme mass ratio limit, where the primary is spinning and the secondary is represented by a nonspinning point-particle inspiralling along inclined orbits. The point-particle dynamics is described via a Hamiltonian formalism and the transition is driven by an effective-one-body like radiation reaction force. The gravitational waveform is obtained solving numerically, in the time-domain, the Teukolsky equation with a δ-like source. The waveform is systematically characterized varying the black hole spin magnitude between (0,0.9) and the inclination angle of the orbit between (0,π). We consider all multipoles up to ℓ=4 and compute the energy and angular momentum losses during the plunge. The impact of the m≠ℓ modes grows as the inclination angle is increased. We also use our framework to quantify the accuracy of the approximate inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform for an inclined orbit that can be obtained by applying a suitable time-dependent rotation to a given spin-aligned waveform with approximately consistent (but constant) spin-orbit coupling.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 044052– Published 20 February, 2026
  • Received 24 September 2025
  • Accepted 22 January 2026
Article part of CHORUS
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