Gravitational-Wave Research Seminar

Compact binaries where one component is substantially more massive than the other, so-called extreme mass-ratio inspirals, are keys sources for the LISA mission. In order to unlock their full science potential it is known that black hole perturbation must be taken beyond the linear regime that has dominated since the 60s. In this talk I will present the first calculation at second-order in the mass ratio for a quasi-circular, non-spinning binary. Our result focuses on the binding energy of the binary but I will also sketch the road to second-order accurate waveforms.