Gravitational radiation reaction in compact binary systems: Contribution of the quadrupole-monopole interaction

The radiation reaction in compact spinning binaries on eccentric orbits due to the quadrupole-monopole interaction is studied. This contribution is of second post-Newtonian order. As a result of the precession of spins the magnitude L of the orbital angular momentum is not conserved. Therefore a proper characterization of the perturbed radial motion is provided by the energy E and angular average L̅ . As powerful computing tools, the generalized true and eccentric anomaly parametrizations are introduced. Then the secular losses in energy and magnitude of the orbital angular momentum together with the secular evolution of the relative orientations of the orbital angular momentum and spins are found for eccentric orbits by use of the residue theorem. The circular orbit limit of the energy loss agrees with Poisson’s earlier result.