Surrogate model for gravitational waveforms from spinning binary black hole coalescences using perturbation theory

Accurate inspiral-merger-ringdown waveform models are crucial for the detection and characterization of gravitational wave sources such as binary black hole (BBH) mergers. Surrogate models for gravitational waveforms from non-spinning BBH mergers trained with point-particle blackhole perturbation theory (ppBHPT) waveform (BHPTNRSur1dq1e4) have proved to be efficient for comparable and large mass ratio configurations. In this work, we extend the BHPTNRSur1dq1e4 surrogate model to include spin on the primary black hole, aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum of the binary. Our model is trained with ppBHPT waveforms covering mass ratios from q=3 to q=1000, spin magnitudes on the primary black hole up to 0.8, and includes a total of $11$ positive $m$ modes up to $ell=5$. Similar to the BHPTNRSur1dq1e4 model, we find that our model works surprisingly well in the comparable mass ratio limit after we perform a simple calibration against the spin-aligned numerical relativity waveforms. Finally, we discuss challenges and possible modeling strategies to handle precessing binary systems.