Description
Coalescing compact binaries serve as natural laboratories where black holes act both
as targets for gravitational wave observations and as moving probes of their surrounding
medium. In this talk, I will explore how asymmetric binaries—a promising new class of
sources to be observed by next-generation detectors—can be used to investigate the
properties of non-vacuum spacetimes in which they evolve.
I will emphasize the importance of employing fully relativistic approaches to accurately describe these systems and highlight some intriguing effects that emerge from such treatments. Finally, I will show that in certain scenarios, the influence of environmental effects can be captured with minimal modifications to standard self-force methods, offering a simplified yet accurate description of their evolution.
