Simple model of complete precessing black-hole-binary gravitational waveforms.

The construction of a model of the gravitational-wave (GW) signal from generic configurations of spinning-black-hole binaries, through inspiral, merger, and ringdown, is one of the most pressing theoretical problems in the buildup to the era of GW astronomy. We present the first such model in the frequency domain, PhenomP, which captures the basic phenomenology of the seven-dimensional parameter space of binary configurations with only three key physical parameters. Two of these (the binary's mass ratio and an effective total spin parallel to the orbital angular momentum, which determines the inspiral rate) define an underlying nonprecessing-binary model.