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Abstract

Asymmetric binary systems radiate linear momentum through gravitational
waves, leading to the recoil of the merger remnant. Black-hole kicks have
attracted much attention because of their astrophysical implications. However,
little information can be extracted from the observations made by LIGO and
Virgo so far. In this work, we discuss how the gravitational recoil, an effect
that is encoded in the gravitational signal, can be used to test the accuracy
of waveform models. Gravitational-wave models of merging binary systems have
become fundamental to detect potential signals and infer the parameters of
observed sources. But, as the interferometers' sensitivity is enhanced in
current and future detectors, gravitational waveform models will have to be
further improved. We find that the kick is highly sensitive to waveform
inaccuracies and can therefore be a useful diagnostic test. Furthermore, we
observe that current higher-mode waveform models are not consistent in their
kick predictions. For this reason, we discuss whether measuring and improving
waveform accuracy can, in turn, allow us to extract meaningful information
about the kick in future observations.