Not All Resonances Are Created Equal: Prioritizing Tidal Resonances in EMRIs
Abstract
Tidal perturbations from nearby compact objects can drive resonant "kicks" in extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), imprinting potentially detectable phase shifts in LISA-band gravitational waveforms. We provide a systematic survey of these tidal resonances across EMRI parameter space in the weak-tide, three-body hierarchy, treating the perturber as stationary on the resonance timescale. For generic Kerr orbits we compute (i) resonance contours in (p,e,x) that locate where each (n,k,m) resonance is encountered, (ii) the associated resonance duration, and (iii) the jump amplitudes in the angular momentum Lz and the Carter constant Q (with ΔE vanishing by time-translation symmetry in the stationary model). Combining jump amplitudes with resonance durations, we construct a practical ranking of the resonances most relevant for waveform modeling, while emphasizing that even modest resonances may still be important through their influence on the phase at which subsequent resonances are entered. All contour and jump data are publicly available.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{bonga2026resonances,
title = {{Not All Resonances Are Created Equal: Prioritizing Tidal Resonances in EMRIs}},
author = {Béatrice Bonga and Patrick Bourg and Bram ten Brink and H. A. and Peters},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.03732},
eprint = {2609.03732},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03732},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Not All Resonances Are Created Equal: Prioritizing Tidal Resonances in EMRIs
AU - Béatrice Bonga
AU - Patrick Bourg
AU - Bram ten Brink
AU - H. A.
AU - Peters
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/03
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.03732
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03732
AB - Tidal perturbations from nearby compact objects can drive resonant "kicks" in extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), imprinting potentially detectable phase shifts in LISA-band gravitational waveforms. We provide a systematic survey of these tidal resonances across EMRI parameter space in the weak-tide, three-body hierarchy, treating the perturber as stationary on the resonance timescale. For generic Kerr orbits we compute (i) resonance contours in (p,e,x) that locate where each (n,k,m) resonance is encountered, (ii) the associated resonance duration, and (iii) the jump amplitudes in the angular momentum L_z and the Carter constant Q (with ΔE vanishing by time-translation symmetry in the stationary model). Combining jump amplitudes with resonance durations, we construct a practical ranking of the resonances most relevant for waveform modeling, while emphasizing that even modest resonances may still be important through their influence on the phase at which subsequent resonances are entered. All contour and jump data are publicly available.
ER -