Let , using spatial indices . Stress-energy conservation, symmetry of the stress-energy tensor and integration by parts give
and a second derivative gives
All boundary terms vanish by compact support. This proves the stress-energy quadrupole identity,
The support is understood to remain bounded over the time interval used for differentiating these integrals.
For the radiation calculation set , write and use the trace-reversed metric perturbation in Lorenz gauge in linearized gravity. With the curvature and field-equation signs in this paper, the linear equation is
The retarded solution with no incoming radiation is consequently
Let be the distance from the source's centre of mass, and let be its size. In the radiation zone, . The leading multipole expansion additionally assumes slow internal motion, or small compared with the radiation wavelength. These assumptions allow in the denominator and the common retarded time at leading quadrupole order. Thus
Define the trace-free mass quadrupole moment by
To make the requested normalization explicit, write the trace-free spatial metric coefficient as . Trace reversal only adds a spatial trace, so the preceding equations give the far-zone quadrupole strain coefficient
The supplied scan does not contain the referenced perturbation handout. The definition above fixes the normalization of directly. If denotes the physical transverse-traceless tensor in that handout, the right-hand side is also to be transversely projected for the observation direction. Trace-free alone does not imply transverse. With , put
The transverse-traceless projector gives and the physical spatial strain is . This also states the result without relying on omitted handout notation. The retarded construction and direction-dependent transverse projection are described in Carroll's general relativity lectures, with the appropriate changes of metric-sign convention.
For the equal-mass binary star, its centre of mass is at the origin and the separation is . The gravitational force on either star is , while its centripetal force is . Hence
At leading Newtonian order, is the sum of the two point-mass densities. Its moments are
so the trace-free mass quadrupole moment is
The Newtonian bound system is treated in the usual leading weak-field quadrupole approximation; an exactly conserved effective source also includes the interaction stresses. Accelerated point-mass dust alone would not satisfy the conservation hypothesis.
Differentiating twice and evaluating at gives
For an observer on the axis this is already transverse and traceless. Its alternating plus polarization and cross polarization have a phase difference of , giving circularly polarized gravitational radiation at twice the orbital frequency. The amplitude decays as , as expected for outgoing radiation in three spatial dimensions.
More generally take the line of sight in the plane at inclination to the orbital angular-momentum axis. In the transverse basis , , define . Projection gives the physical gravitational wave polarizations
Thus a generic view is elliptically polarized, the face-on view is circularly polarized and the edge-on view is linearly polarized. This is circular-binary quadrupole radiation; an overall sign or transverse-axis rotation only changes the polarization convention.
To construct an original example rather than imitate GW150914, set , , and adopt the rounded solar mass . Compare and solar mass binaries starting at . Stop each at the stipulated orbital compactness threshold
This is a conservative pedagogical stopping rule, not a claimed error bound: the relative speed already reaches . Higher-order corrections accumulate wave phase well before merger, and precision inference requires better models. The two cutoffs are approximately and respectively; doubling the chirp mass multiplies at fixed by .
For a nearby stipulated source at distance , neglect redshift and define inclination as the angle between the orbital angular momentum and the line of sight. The leading quadrupole formula yields
The numerator of has units , matching , so both polarizations are dimensionless. Its growth and the rising frequency produce the tightening, strengthening oscillations. For face-on viewing the polarization components have equal magnitudes in phase quadrature; for edge-on viewing the cross component vanishes, agreeing with circular-binary quadrupole radiation.
Figure 1.
Stipulated Newtonian binary chirps and two ideal detector projections
. Calculated examples only: no measured LIGO strain or noise. Upper panels compare equal-mass binaries up to . Lower panels use solar masses, and degrees. Ideal overhead detectors have and ; the second record has a stipulated delay, then is shifted back for comparison. These geometries and delay are not fitted Hanford–Livingston responses. Details.
Shifting an arrival time aligns the chirp evolution, but different polarization projections need not overlay after only a sign flip. The last panel divides the ideal projected records by their known envelope factors to expose this phase difference. A physical source model must jointly explain those differences, not erase them by arbitrary rescaling. Independent integration of the separation equation, the radiated power and checks the analytic chirp against orbital energy balance over the entire stipulated interval.