Next generation: Impact of high-order analytical information on effective one body waveform models for noncircularized, spin-aligned black hole binaries

We explore the performance of an updated effective one-body (EOB) model for spin-aligned coalescing black hole binaries designed to deal with any orbital configuration. The model stems from previous work involving the TEOBResumS waveform model, but incorporates recently computed analytical information up to fifth post-Newtonian (PN) order in the EOB potentials. The dynamics is then informed by numerical relativity (NR) quasicircular simulations (incorporating also recently computed 4PN spin-spin and, optionally, 4.5PN spin-orbit terms). The so-constructed model(s) are then compared to various kind of NR simulations, covering either quasicircular inspirals, eccentric inspirals and scattering configurations. For quasicircular (534 datasets) and eccentric (28 datasets) inspirals up to coalescence, the EOB/NR unfaithfulness is well below 1% except for a few outliers in the high, positive, spin corner of the parameter space, where however it does not exceed the 3% level. The EOB values of the scattering angle are found to agree (1%) with the NR predictions for most configurations, with the largest disagreement of only ∼4% for the most relativistic one. The inclusion of some high-order analytical information in the orbital sector is useful to improve the EOB/NR agreement with respect to previous work, although the use of NR-informed functions is still crucial to accurately describe the strong-field dynamics and waveform.