Abstract

We review the gravitational self-force program to analytically compute first-order metric perturbations in a Schwarzschild black hole spacetime in the case of a perturbing mass moving on a slightly eccentric equatorial orbit. The perturbed metric components should then be combined into gauge-invariant quantities to be associated with physical observables. In this way, for example, one determines the various “potentials” entering the Effective-One-Body model, i.e., a powerful formalism for the description of the gravitational interaction of two masses, which is currently successfully used for the analysis of gravitational wave signals.