Self-force from reconstructed metric perturbations: Numerical implementation in Schwarzschild spacetime

We present a first numerical implementation of a new scheme by Pound et al. [1] that enables the calculation of the gravitational self-force in Kerr spacetime from a reconstructed metric-perturbation in a radiation gauge. The numerical task of the metric reconstruction essentially reduces to solving the fully separable Teukolsky equation, rather than having to tackle the linearized Einstein's equations themselves in the Lorenz gauge, which are not separable in Kerr. The method offers significant computational saving compared to existing methods in the Lorenz gauge, and we expect it to become a main workhorse for precision self-force calculations in the future. Here we implement the method for circular orbits on a Schwarzschild background, in order to illustrate its efficacy and accuracy. We use two independent methods for solving the Teukolsky equation, one based on a direct numerical integration, and the other on the analytical approach of Mano, Suzuki, and Takasugi. The relative accuracy of the output self-force is at least 10-7 using the first method, and at least 10-9 using the second; the two methods agree to within the error bars of the first. We comment on the relation to a related approach by Shah et al. [2], and discuss foreseeable applications to more generic orbits in Kerr spacetime.