Gravitational memory contributions to waveform and effective action

Abstract

We use effective field theory techniques to derive the quadrupole-quadrupole part of the gravitational wave, obtaining a waveform in agreement with previous results found within the multipolar-post-Minkowskian method. This result is obtained by carefully avoiding implicit coordinate transformation, that would also alter the form of the radiation reaction force in the harmonic gauge. An in-in effective action is then derived along the same principles and it is shown to provide energy and angular momentum balance equations consistent with the corresponding fluxes carried at infinity by gravitational radiation.