Fast frequency-domain gravitational waveforms for precessing binaries with a new twist

Abstract: Gravitational waveform (GW) models are a core ingredient for the analysis of compact binary mergers observed by current ground-based interferometers. We focus here on a specific class of such models known as PhenomX, which has gained popularity in recent years thanks to its computational efficiency. We introduce a new description of the ``twisting-up'' mapping underpinning the construction of precessing waveforms within this family. The new description is an adaptation to the frequency domain of a technique previously implemented in time-domain models, where the orbit-averaged post-Newtonian spin-precession dynamics is numerically solved on the fly. We also present an improved version of the gravitational-wave strain amplitudes approximating the signal in the co-precessing frame. We demonstrate that the new description yields improved matches against numerical relativity simulations, with only a modest computational overhead. We also show that the new model can be reliably employed in parameter estimation follow-ups of GW events, returning equivalent or more stringent measurements of the source properties compared to its predecessor.