Intermediate-mass-ratio black hole binaries II: Modeling Trajectories
  and Gravitational Waveforms
  We revisit the scenario of small-mass-ratio (q) black-hole binaries;
performing new, more accurate, simulations of mass ratios 10:1 and 100:1 for
initially nonspinning black holes. We propose fitting functions for the
trajectories of the two black holes as a function of time and mass ratio (in
the range 1/100 < q < 1/10$) that combine aspects of post-Newtonian
trajectories at smaller orbital frequencies and plunging geodesics at larger
frequencies. We then use these trajectories to compute waveforms via black hole
perturbation theory. Using the advanced LIGO noise curve, we see a match of
~99.5% for the leading (l,m)=(2,2) mode between the numerical relativity and
perturbative waveforms. Nonleading modes have similarly high matches. We thus
prove the feasibility of efficiently generating a bank of gravitational
waveforms in the intermediate-mass-ratio regime using only a sparse set of full
numerical simulations.
