Every binary black hole radiates the same basic chirp, so the parameters have to hide somewhere in its shape. Drag the sliders and watch the blue waveform move against the pinned reference — all in geometric units, with time and phase set to zero at the amplitude peak and the amplitude divided by the symmetric mass ratio ν = q/(1+q)², so nothing but the shape is left to look at.
Dividing by ν takes out the leading-order amplitude scaling, and the peak then barely moves — under 20% across q = 1 to 8. What is left is timing: an unequal-mass binary creeps through many more cycles before it merges.
The orbital hang-up. Spin aligned with the orbit holds the binary apart, adding cycles and pushing the merger to higher frequency and larger amplitude; anti-aligned spin plunges early.
The orbital plane precesses about the total angular momentum with opening angle β. In the co-precessing frame nothing much happens; in a fixed frame the ℓ=m=2 amplitude is modulated at the precession rate.
Each periastron passage is a burst: amplitude and frequency pulse once per radial period. Radiation reaction circularises the orbit, so the pulses fade toward merger — eccentricity is a low-frequency signature.
Face-on you only ever see (2,±2). Turn the binary edge-on and the (2,1), (3,3), (4,4) modes appear — and precession, which reshuffles power between m values, becomes far easier to see.
m1/m2, log-spaced
Both spins aligned, χ1z = χ2z
In-plane spin on the primary — steps of 0.1
At the start frequency, periastron first — steps of 0.05
Line of sight from L̂ at the start; reference azimuth set by the merger phase