We present the first models of extreme-mass-ratio inspirals within the effective-one-body (EOB) formalism, focusing on quasicircular orbits into nonrotating black holes. We show that the phase difference and (Newtonian-normalized) amplitude difference between analytical EOB and numerical Teukolsky-based gravitational waveforms can be reduced to $\lesssim {10}^{-1}\mathrm{rad}$ and $\lesssim 2\times {10}^{-3}$, respectively, after a 2-year evolution. The inclusion of post-Newtonian self-force terms in the EOB approach leads to a phase disagreement of $\sim 6–27\mathrm{rad}$ after a 2-year evolution. Such inclusion could also allow for the EOB modeling of waveforms from intermediate-mass-ratio, quasicircular inspirals.

• Received 23 September 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.091102