TNT Colloquium EFT for gravitational waves: radiation reaction and spin effects [Duke]

n order to detect and study the data encoded in a gravitational wave signal, it is necessary not only an extreme accurate experimental apparatus, but also an accurate theoretical description of the dynamics of the source and the radiation emitted by it. The inspiral stage of a binary system of compact bodies, in which a hierarchy among the scales is present, invites us to employ an Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach that makes use of a perturbative expansion in terms of the relative velocity of the two-body system know as the Post-Newtonian (PN) expansion. Although QFT techniques are used, the calculations performed using this EFT framework are confined to the classical level. In this talk, I will review this formalism and present results regarding radiation reaction and spin effects at 4PN and 4.5PN order for a binary system of compact bodies.